Companies increasingly recognize the importance of communicating corporate social responsibility including their engagement toward employees, the community, the environment and other stakeholder groups to attract applicants. The positive findings on the effect of CSR on applicants’ reactions are commonly based on the assumption that companies send a clear signal about their commitment to CSR. However, communication is always contextualized and has become more ambiguous through the increased availability of information online. External stakeholders including actual and potential applicants are confronted with (...) inconsistencies between the way companies communicate CSR activities and their overall CSR performance. Drawing on signaling theory, this article raises the question of how the interaction between strong CSR communication and low CSR performance influences organizational attractiveness. We propose that low CSR performance dampens the effect of CSR communication on organizational attractiveness. Hence, the inconsistency between CSR communication and CSR performance decreases organizational attractiveness. To test our hypotheses, we scraped 67,189 posts published on corporate Facebook career pages by 58 Fortune 500 companies from the time they began their respective career page until June 2018. Surprisingly, our results show that a low CSR performance strengthens the effect of CSR communication on organizational attractiveness. Thus, inconsistencies between CSR communication and CSR performance seem to lead to positive evaluations among applicants. (shrink)

In this communication recent evidence from cognitive neuroscience is presented showing that believing is a fundamental brain function. It integrates the perception of information from the environment with personal perspective taking (“what does it mean to me?”) as the basis for predictive coding of action. Observing that another person becomes injured can make one believe that the pain in the injured person is similar to pain that oneself has experienced previously. This first-person perspective has been called empathy and includes primal (...) beliefs about potentially pain eliciting objects and painful events in the sense of “what does it mean to you?”. Furthermore, observing other people to suffer involves the conceptual belief that their condition is aversive and burdensome. Believing in love and peace involves the perspective of “what does it mean to us?”. Contradictory events may cause the sensation of pain and suffering in the afflicted individuals resulting in mutual distrust and eventually disruption of social bonds. In conclusion, beliefs play an important, though long underestimated role in cognitive neuroscience of pain and suffering and more generally for the cultural notions of deities and evil. (shrink)

According to the scenario of cosmological artificial selection and artificial cosmogenesis, our universe was created and possibly even fine-tuned by cosmic engineers in another universe. This approach shall be compared to other explanations, and some far-reaching problems of it shall be discussed.

One of the century's greatest philosophers, without whom there would be no Sartre, no Foucault, no Frankfurt School, Martin Heidegger was also a man of great failures and flaws, a Faustus who made a pact with the devil of his time, Adolf Hitler. The story of Heidegger's life and philosophy, a quintessentially German story in which good and evil, brilliance and blindness are inextricably entwined and the passions and disasters of a whole century come into play, is told in this (...) brilliant biography. Heidegger grew up in Catholic Germany where, for a chance at pursuing a life of learning, he pledged himself to the priesthood. Soon he turned apostate and sought a university position, which set him on the path to becoming the star of German philosophy in the 1920s. Rüdiger Safranski chronicles Heidegger's rise along with the thought he honed on the way, with its debt to Heraclitus, Plato, and Kant, and its tragic susceptibility to the conservatism that emerged out of the nightmare of Germany's loss in World War I. A chronicle of ideas and of personal commitments and betrayals, Safranski's biography combines clear accounts of the philosophy that won Heidegger eternal renown with the fascinating details of the loves and lapses that tripped up this powerful intellectual. The best intellectual biography of Heidegger ever written and a best-seller in Germany, Martin Heidegger: Between Good and Evil does not shy away from full coverage of Heidegger's shameful transformation into a propagandist for the National Socialist regime; nor does it allow this aspect of his career to obscure his accomplishments. Written by a master of Heidegger's philosophy, the book is one of the best introductions to the thought and to the life and times of the greatest German philosopher of the century. (shrink)

The present reply to Peter Schaber’s critique of my paper Achtung und ihre moralische Bedeutung argues, first, that Schaber has no good grounds for maintaining that we have an obligation to respect every human being. Second, it explains why respect is not a fruitful attitude to take in the face of social divisions.

Freud’s concept of repression should be discarded because we do not understand what supposedly is being repressed, nor what is repressing, nor why it is done. Freud’s answers to the first two questions fall short of the dynamic picture of forces and counterforces implicit in the idea of repression. The answer to the last question invokes an unacceptable separation of agencies in the person.

Corporate sustainability reports are supposed to provide a complete and balanced picture of corporate sustainability performance. They are, however, usually voluntary and thus prone to interpretation and even greenwashing tendencies. To overcome this problem, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) provides standardized reporting guidelines challenging companies to report positive and negative aspects of an organization’s sustainability performance. However, the reporting of “negative aspects” in particular can endanger corporate legitimacy if perceived by the stakeholders as not being in line with societal norms (...) and values. Starting from the theoretical lenses of economics-based disclosure theories and socio-political theories of disclosure, the focus of this study therefore was to analyze the communicative legitimation strategies companies use to report “negative aspects,” i.e., negative ecological and social impact caused by corporate activity. Using qualitative content analysis of GRI-oriented sustainability reports from companies listed on the US Dow Jones Industrial Average Index and on the German DAX Index, we identified six legitimation strategies. We discuss these strategies regarding to symbolic and substantial management of legitimacy. We show that symbolic legitimation strategies aiming at modifying the perception of legitimizing stakeholders dominate in the reports at hand. Such persuasion, however, does not meet the requirement of impartiality as postulated by the GRI guidelines. Building upon this conclusion we propose a concise characterization of “negative aspects” and develop a GRI-compliant schema of reporting about them. In doing so, we offer a way to improve the overall “balance” of sustainability reporting contributing to a true and fair view in sustainability disclosure. (shrink)

The first United Nations Millennium Development Goal calls for a distinct reduction of worldwide poverty. It is now widely accepted that the private sector is a crucial partner in achieving this ambitious target. Building on this insight, the ‹Bottom of the Pyramid’ concept provides a framework that highlights the untapped opportunities with the ‹poorest of the poor’, while at the same time acknowledging the abilities and resources of private enterprises for poverty alleviation. This article connects the idea of business with (...) the poor to sustainable development and especially to the notions of inter- and intragenerational justice. These principles of justice can be linked with the ‹Bottom of the Pyramid’ approach directly through the Rawlsian principles to foster holistic thinking. On this basis, the article offers a normative-ethical reasoning of corporations’ possible responsibilities for the poorest of the poor. Today’s state of worldwide inequalities is likely to generate future tensions between the privileged western world and the uncounted mass of poor (let alone the ethical dubiousness of this status). However, it is at the same time problematic if not even impossible to improve the situation of the poor by simply copying the resource intensive western way of living to the ‹Bottom of the Pyramid’ due to the limited carrying capacity of the earth. After highlighting possible moral dilemmas which may occur through such a potential trade off, this article concludes with an outlook on how the concepts ‹Bottom of the Pyramid’ and sustainable development could be combined. (shrink)

Der oft schon totgesagte Leviathan des Thomas Hobbes ist so lebendig, aber auch so umstritten wie bei seiner Geburt. Carl Schmitt ist als der "Hobbes des 20. Jahrhunderts" bezeichnet worden. Er selbst sah sich gern als Nachfolger und Erben des Begrunders der neuzeitlichen Staatsphilosophie. In dem "Hobbes-Kristall" kommt Schmitts eigenwillige Hobbes-Interpretation besonders deutlich zum Vorschein. Denn in diesem Diagramm wird der Mikrokosmos Schmittschen Denkens sichtbar. Es enthalt funf Achsen, deren oberste die Wahrheit und deren unterste Gehorsam und Schutz des Einzelnen (...) sind. In drei Teilen setzen sich Philosophen, Staats- und Politikwissenschaftler mit der Interpretation des Leviatahn im Allgemeinen und der Schmittschen Hobbes-Interpretation im Besonderen auseinander. (shrink)

In der Erkenntnistheorie führt das von Hans Albert so genannte Münchhausen-Trilemma an die Grenzen von Begründungen und Rechtfertigungen. Da diese immer in einen infiniten Regress, Zirkel oder Abbruch münden, ist absolut sicheres, letztbegründetes Wissen nicht möglich. Neuere Entwicklungen in der Erkenntnistheorie zeigen jedoch, dass sich die Rechtfertigungen unserer Überzeugungen vielleicht doch tiefer fundieren lassen als bislang gedacht, und dass die Erkenntnisgrenzen erweitert und im Hinblick auf skeptische Argumente genauer bestimmt werden können, wenn der epistemologische Internalismus eingeschränkt werden muss. Die Kosmologie (...) und Metaphysik stoßen aufgrund des Münchhausen-Trilemmas ebenfalls an Grenzen. Dies lässt sich an zwei besonders brisanten Fragen kritisch illustrieren (auch wenn die zahlreichen Antwortversuche und Argumente hier nicht im Detail dargestellt werden können): Wie kam es zum Urknall? Und warum ist etwas und nicht vielmehr nichts? Dabei markiert das Münchhausen-Trilemma nicht nur die explanatorischen Probleme, sondern auch die physikalischen und metaphysischen Möglichkeiten: Der infinite Regress entspricht einem ewigen Kosmos (mit womöglich unendlich vielen Urknall-Ereignissen ohne einen allerersten) beziehungsweise einer unaufhörlichen Kontingenz; der Abbruch entspricht einem absoluten Anfang beziehungsweise einem fundamentalen, unhintergehbaren, womöglich metaphysisch notwendigen Prinzip oder einem unerklärlichen Zufall; und der Zirkel entspricht einem kosmologischen Zeitschleifen-Modell beziehungsweise spekulativen metaphysischen Selbstfundierungsprinzipien. Einerseits sind diese Alternativen letztlich alle unbefriedigend, andererseits stellt die undogmatische epistemische Bescheidenheit, die daraus resultieren sollte, zugleich eine wichtige Einsicht dar, die die beste Voraussetzung ist für weitere Forschungen und somit für einen Fortschritt in der wissenschaftlichen und philosophischen Erkundung unserer Welt und unserer Wissensgrenzen. (shrink)

So we stand more or less on our own when trying to make sense of a specifically transcendental way of argumentation. Fortunately we are not all that alone, since independently of a direct Kantian influence the problem of transcendental arguments has stimulated a considerable debate among analytical philosophers. And we still have Kant’s own text. We shall start, therefore, by reminding ourselves of this debate and then go back to Kant. We shall deliberately not proceed the other way round in (...) order to avoid as much as possible what one may call a Kantian bias. The representatives chosen for analytical philosophy are Wittgenstein, Quine, and Strawson. We shall then consider the Kantian account of the meaning of the term "transcendental". After this preparation we are in a position to examine the claim of a ‘transcendental deduction,’ which is one of the most controversial issues arising from the Critique of Pure Reason. (shrink)

Complexity and life as we know it depend crucially on the laws and constants of nature as well as the boundary conditions, which seem at least partly “fine-tuned.” That deserves an explanation: Why are they the way they are? This essay discusses and systematizes the main options for answering these foundational questions. Fine-tuning might just be an illusion, or a result of irreducible chance, or nonexistent because nature could not have been otherwise (which might be shown within a fundamental theory (...) if some constants or laws could be reduced to boundary conditions or boundary conditions to laws), or it might be a product of selection: either observational selection (weak anthropic principle) within a vast multiverse of many different realizations of physical parameters, or a kind of cosmological natural selection making the measured parameter values quite likely within a multiverse of many different values, or even a teleological or intentional selection or a coevolutionary development, depending on a more or less goal-directed participatory contribution of life and intelligence. In contrast to observational selection, which is not predictive, an observer-independent selection mechanism must generate unequal reproduction rates of universes, a peaked probability distribution, or another kind of differential frequency, resulting in a stronger explanatory power. The hypothesis of Cosmological Artificial Selection (CAS) even suggests that our universe may be a vast computer simulation or could have been created and transcended by one. If so, this would be a far-reaching answer – within a naturalistic framework! – of fundamental questions such as: Why did the big bang and fine-tunings occur, what is the role of intelligence in the universe, and how can it escape cosmic doomsday? This essay critically discusses some of the premises and implications of CAS and related problems, both with the proposal itself and its possible physical realization: Does CAS deserve to be considered as a convincing explanation of cosmic fine-tuning? Is life incidental, or does CAS revalue it? And are life and intelligence ultimately doomed, or might CAS rescue them? (shrink)

In recent years, a considerable amount of research on adapted business for developing countries focused on the impact such endeavours have on the respective companies as well as on the affected people. However, the main emphasis within management sciences was on the economic outcomes or (even more distinct and often) on the question of how to integrate the poor into business models and value chains. Until now, further aspects of a dignified human existence were merely covered as a side note. (...) The article focuses on the influence of inclusive business approaches on various aspects of human dignity and provides explorative insights as a basis for future theory building. The aim is to uncover how human dignity is affected by different business approaches for the poor including and beyond economic outcomes. After giving an insight into the essence and meaning of human dignity in connection to various human rights, the articles refers to a number of illustrative cases of inclusive business. The analysis culminates in the insight that dignity can be (and sometimes already is) assured and promoted by deliberately including the poor into relevant value-added business processes. If this is the case, an enhanced dignity is not merely the result of increased incomes but stems from a variety of effects. However, such positive effects are not an inevitable outcome of any inclusive business initiative. (shrink)

In recent years, a considerable amount of research on adapted business for developing countries focused on the impact such endeavours have on the respective companies as well as on the affected people. However, the main emphasis within management sciences was on the economic outcomes or (even more distinct and often) on the question of how to integrate the poor into business models and value chains. Until now, further aspects of a dignified human existence were merely covered as a side note. (...) The article focuses on the influence of inclusive business approaches on various aspects of human dignity and provides explorative insights as a basis for future theory building. The aim is to uncover how human dignity is affected by different business approaches for the poor including and beyond economic outcomes. After giving an insight into the essence and meaning of human dignity in connection to various human rights, the articles refers to a number of illustrative cases of inclusive business. The analysis culminates in the insight that dignity can be (and sometimes already is) assured and promoted by deliberately including the poor into relevant value‐added business processes. If this is the case, an enhanced dignity is not merely the result of increased incomes but stems from a variety of effects. However, such positive effects are not an inevitable outcome of any inclusive business initiative. (shrink)

Collaborative consumption is proposed as a potential step beyond unsustainable linear consumption patterns toward more sustainable consumption practices. Despite mounting interest in the topic, little is known about the determinants of this consumer behavior. We use an extended theory of planned behavior to examine the relative influence of consumers’ personal norms and the theory’s basic sociopsychological variables attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control on collaborative consumption. Moreover, we use this framework to examine consumers’ underlying value and belief structure regarding (...) collaborative consumption. We measure these aspects for 224 consumers in a survey and then assess their self-reported collaborative consumption behavior in a second survey. Our structural model fits the data well. Collaborative consumption is more strongly—through intentions—influenced by personal norms and attitudes than by subjective norms. Personal norms to consume collaboratively are determined by consumers’ altruistic, biospheric, and egoistic value orientations. Cost savings, efficient use of resources, and community with others are found to be consumers’ attitudinal beliefs underlying collaborative consumption. We conclude that collaborative consumption can be pin-pointed neither as a mere form of economic exchange nor as a primarily normative form of sharing resources. Instead, collaborative consumption is determined by economic/egoistic (e.g., cost savings) and normative (e.g., altruistic and biospheric value orientations) motives. Implications for collaborative consumption research, the theory of planned behavior, and practitioners are discussed. (shrink)

'Toward a science of consciousness' conference Skovde, Sweden, August 6-11, 2001.

Der Band geht zurück auf die Tagung „Der aufrechte Gang im windschiefen Kapitalismus“, die im Januar 2016 in Weimar stattgefunden hat. Ihr Ziel war es, unterschiedliche Traditionen zusammenzuführen, Modelle kritischen Denkens zu vergegenwärtigen und neue Perspektiven der Gesellschaftstheorie zu eröffnen. Die Beiträge widmen sich der Standortbestimmung kritischer Theorien. Sie reflektieren auf ihre Ursprünge, loten ihr zeitdiagnostisches Potential aus und dokumentieren ihren interdisziplinären Charakter. Der „aufrechte Gang“ im Denken bedeutet, sich von der Übermacht des Bestehenden nicht einschüchtern zu lassen, konformistischer Akzeptanz (...) wie irrationaler Sinngebung zu widerstehen und die Möglichkeit des Neuen, die Utopie, wach zu halten. (shrink)

The paper deals with some of the developments in analysis against the background of Hilbert's contributions to the Calculus of Variations. As a starting point the transformation is chosen that took place at the end of the 19th century in the Calculus of Variations, and emphasis is placed on the influence of Dirichlet's principle. The proof of the principle (the resuscitation ) led Hilbert to questions arising in the 19th and 20th problems of his famous Paris address in 1900: theexistence (...) in a generalized sense, and theregularity of solutions of elliptic partial differential equations. By this new concept Hilbert pointed out two very important issues the history of which is closely tied up with the rise of modern analysis. Further on, Hilbert'stheorem of independence of the Calculus of Variations, an important contribution to its formal apparatus as well as to its field theory, is briefly discussed. But even as Hilbert published his first essential results, he was turning his attention to another area of mathematics that differs in an important respect from the Calculus of Variations:integral equations. Hilbert did so because he recognized that in this branch by its flexibility he was coming closer to his goal of an unifying methodological approach to analysis. (shrink)

The influence of the Platonic theory of forms is to be found in nearly all periods in the history of Western philosophy. Much less well known is the fact that in all ages Arabic philosophers also discussed Platonic forms in their written works, although they had no access to Plato s Dialogues. This study analyses how this conception was given doctrinal content without recourse to Plato s works, and presents the relevant Arabic works in German translation for the first time. (...) They offer a first insight into a branch of the reception of Platonism that has not yet been researched, but which is often clearly influenced by Islam.". (shrink)

A collection of essays on economic policy in the open economy. If a country is opening up its economy, that is, allowing its domestic production to become competitive with that of the rest of the world, how do policy choices critically influence its economic performance? This book highlights the choices that can be made in several areas: monetary policy, exchange-rate policy, financial reform, protection, tax reform, and foreign capital. It includes detailed case-studies of Nigeria and Bolivia.

For certain classes of Dedekind domains S we want to characterize S-modules U such that Ext=0 for some module SMQ. We shall call these modules M-Whitehead modules. On the one hand we will show that assuming all M-Whitehead modules U are S0-free, i.e. US0 is a free S0-module where S0 is the nucleus of M. On the other hand if there is a ladder system on a stationary subset of ω1 that satisfies 2-uniformization, then there exists a non-S0-free M-Whitehead module. (...) Conversely, we will show that in the special case of Abelian groups the existence of a non-S0-free R-Whitehead group–here R is a rational group–implies that there is a ladder system on a stationary subset of ω1 that satisfies 2-uniformization. (shrink)

The selection of ‘good’ pictures has increasingly become a crucial factor when transmitting news to the recipients. Every day thousands of events are happening and millions of pictures are taken. By choosing photographs for newspapers and magazines, photographic editorial departments want to attract the recipients' attention, evoke emotions and get them to read their stories. But what exactly is a good picture that meets these expectations? Which criteria are decisive for selecting pictures and what effects of this selection can be (...) measured on the recipients' side? This article presents the results of a research project carried out at the University of Erfurt in 2008 and conducted in collaboration with the German weekly magazine stern. It deals with the selection and impact of press photography by introducing the concept ‘photo news factors’. Applying the traditional news value theory to pictures, photo news factors are defined as selection criteria that, on the part of the communicator, decide whether the press photos are worth publishing. Furthermore, they are assumed to exert an influence on the intensity of attention that a picture arouses. (shrink)

Although the existence of an Arabic translation of a section of Proclus' commentary on Plato's Timaeus lost in the Greek has been known since long, this text has not yet enjoyed a modern edition. The present article aims to consummate this desideratum by offering a critical edition of the Arabic fragment accompanied by an annotated English translation. The attached study of the contents and structure of the extant fragment shows that it displays all typical formal elements of Proclus' commentaries, whereas (...) its conciseness and shortcomings raise certain doubts about its completeness. As a parergon, the article includes an analysis of a hitherto neglected letter by Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq, which is attached to the fragment in the manuscript transmission. In addition to providing some insight into the origins of the Proclian fragment, this letter sheds some light on the Syriac and Arabic reception of some works by Hippocrates and Galen, especially Hippocrates' On Regimen in Acute Diseases and the history of its Arabic translation. Résumé Bien que l'existence d'une traduction arabe d'une section perdue en grec du commentaire de Proclus sur le Timée soit connue depuis longtemps, ce texte n'avait fait jusqu'à présent l'objet d'aucune édition. Le présent article vise à remédier à ce manque, en proposant une édition critique du fragment arabe accompagnée d'une traduction anglaise annotée. L'étude qui l'accompagne, consacrée au contenu et à la structure du fragment transmis, montre qu'il présente, au plan formel, tous les éléments caractéristiques des commentaires de Proclus, quand bien même sa concision et ses défauts soulèvent certains doutes quant à sa complétude. En forme d'appendice, l'article propose une analyse d'une lettre de Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq négligée jusqu'à présent, jointe au fragment sous sa forme transmise. Loin de se borner à nous fournir des renseignements sur les origines du fragment de Proclus, cette lettre jette aussi quelque lumière sur la réception syriaque et arabe de certaines œuvres d'Hippocrate et de Galien, tout particulièrement sur le traité Du régime dans les maladies aiguës d'Hippocrate et sur l'histoire de sa traduction arabe. (shrink)

Germany is considered to be a pioneer of social security systems; nonetheless, globalization and demographic changes have put enormous pressure on them. A solution is not yet in sight as the debate on the future of the German social security systems still lacks consensus. We argue that ideas matter and that the debate can benefit from a deeper reflection on the concept of social security. This objective is pursued along two lines. First, we take a historical perspective and reconstruct the (...) development of Germany's social security systems. Second, we scrutinize from a theoretical perspective how social security is conceptualized in public and theoretical debates. Behind the various positions, we identify four basic ideal types. We then analyze how these ideal types account for the benefits of social security systems and what role they assign to corporations in providing social security. While two ultimately reinforce potential conflicts between different groups in society, the other two ideal types reveal possible benefits for all. The last ideal type actually conceptualizes social security systems as insurance that fosters risky but overall productive investments in human and other forms of capital. Therefore, it can be shown that social security systems are not necessarily threatened by globalization and that incentives exist for corporations to invest in the provision of social security. (shrink)

Extant research underlines the critical challenge for firms to rigorously and consistently evaluate their growing number of cross-sector partnerships for sustainability and suggests formalizing evaluation processes by introducing formal practices. However, empirical research is scant and inconclusive. This study aims to develop an empirically grounded understanding of how firms formalize the evaluation processes of such partnerships and of what drives this formalization, to complement the so far mostly conceptual literature. We inductively analyzed 31 semi-structured interviews with 33 experts from firms (...) and their partnering nonprofits and further secondary data on organizations’ partnerships. We contribute to the cross-sector partnership research by analyzing firms’ practices related to the formalization of the internal as well as the joint partnership evaluation process with nonprofits. We propose a conceptual framework to explain why firms implement different formal practices to reduce the dependency on individuals’ skills, experiences, or judgments in evaluating partnerships. (shrink)

Matthias Schramm, a well-known historian of science and professor at the University of Tübingen from 1966 to 1996, died in Dusslingen near Tübingen on 24 January 2005, shortly before his 77th birthday. He was born on 6 February 1928 in Paris as a child of painters. Due to wartime difficulties, most of his education was acquired at home. In spite of this, he passed the examination of a high-school prior to his matriculation. Although Schramm's school had a pure classical orientation, (...) he read on his own initiative Euclid in Greek. (shrink)

Seit dem Zusammenbruch der bipolaren Ordnung wissen wir, dass weder die internationale "Staatengemeinschaft", noch das Imperium Amerika oder gar das globale Empire als raumliche Bezugsgrossen die weltpolitische Realitat angemesssen abbilden konnen. Vor allem China, aber auch Russland und Indien entziehen sich dieser Kategorisierung. Am deutlichsten wird das bei der Europaischen Union, die nicht nur kein Imperium sein will, sondern sich geradezu als Gegenmodell versteht. Hier kommt die Grossraumtheorie ins Spiel, die Carl Schmitt zu Beginn des Zweiten Weltkrieges entwickelt hat. In (...) zwolf Beitragen analysieren deutsche und auslandische PolitikwissemschaftlerInnen das Grossraumkonzept und ziehen Schlussfolgerungen daraus fur die gegenwartige Situation. Der Band ist in die vier folgenden Teile gegliedert: Carl Schmitts Grossraumkonzept, Grossraumdenken und Volkerrecht, Grossraum und imperiale Herrschaft und ostasiatisches Grossraumdenken. (shrink)

Seit Menschengedenken und lange vor den evidenzbasierten, methodisch reflektierten Naturwissenschaften haben Menschen über das hinausgedacht, was ihnen unmittelbar durch die Sinneserfahrungen erscheint – Spekulationen über den unsichtbaren Mikro- und Makrokosmos eingeschlossen. Dieser Prozess ist noch nicht am Ende. Galt das Universum bislang per definitionem als einzigartig, mehren sich inzwischen die Indizien aus Kosmologie und Fundamentalphysik, dass es viele andere Universen geben könnte. Sie sind von unserem durch Raum, Zeit oder Extradimensionen getrennt – und haben vielleicht doch bizarre Auswirkungen. Mit der (...) Annahme eines solchen Multiversums sollen außerdem viele grundlegende Fragen beantwortet werden: zum Beispiel nach der Ursache des Urknalls, der Richtung der Zeit und den scheinbar extrem genauen „Feinabstimmungen“ der Naturkonstanten, ohne die Leben, wie wir es kennen, unmöglich wäre. Welchen explanatorischen und wissenschaftstheoretischen Status können solche Hypothesen oder Spekulationen legitimerweise beanspruchen? Haben sie überhaupt einen Erklärungswert? Oder sind sie, wenn beziehungsweise weil nicht widerlegbar, nicht eher ein Gegenstand der Metaphysik (was nichts Verwerfliches wäre) oder aber ein Beispiel für Pseudowissenschaft (was intellektuell unredlich wäre)? (shrink)