The article describes the history of Danish constitutional monarchy. It analyzes the complicated procedure in connection with government formation. The Queen must avoid being implied in party polities. She will always act on the responsibility of the Prime Minister, but the role of the Private Secretary is important. The Queen does not take part in policy-making at all. Her functions, be they only formal, are of great symbolic significance. Gallup polls indicate the popularity of monarchy. The Queen is considered the (...) impartial head of state. She is respected as a talented artist. The Queen does not take part in business life. (shrink)

We created paired moral dilemmas with minimal contrasts in wording, a research strategy that has been advocated as a way to empirically establish principles operative in a domain‐specific moral psychology. However, the candidate “principles” we tested were not derived from work in moral philosophy, but rather from work in the areas of consumer choice and risk perception. Participants were paradoxically less likely to choose an action that sacrifices one life to save others when they were asked to provide more reasons (...) for doing so (Experiment 1), and their willingness to sacrifice lives depended not only on how many lives would be saved, but on the number of lives at risk (Experiment 2). The latter effect was also found in a within‐subjects design (Experiment 3). These findings suggest caution in the use of artificial dilemmas as a key testbed for revealing principled bases for moral judgment. (shrink)

Most psychological research consists of experiments that put people in artificial situations that elicit unnatural behavior whose ecological validity is unknown. Without knowing the psychocultural meaning of experimental situations, we cannot interpret the responses of WEIRD people, let alone people in other cultures. Psychology, like other sciences, needs to be solidly rooted in naturalistic observation and description of people around the world. Theory should be inductively developed and tested against real-world behavior.

Moral hypocrisy is typically viewed as an ethical accusation: Someone is applying different moral standards to essentially identical cases, dishonestly claiming that one action is acceptable while otherwise equivalent actions are not. We suggest that in some instances the apparent logical inconsistency stems from different evaluations of a weak argument, rather than dishonesty per se. Extending Corner, Hahn, and Oaksford's (2006) analysis of slippery slope arguments, we develop a Bayesian framework in which accusations of hypocrisy depend on inferences of shared (...) category membership between proposed actions and previous standards, based on prior probabilities that inform the strength of competing hypotheses. Across three experiments, we demonstrate that inferences of hypocrisy increase as perceptions of the likelihood of shared category membership between precedent cases and current cases increase, that these inferences follow established principles of category induction, and that the presence of self-serving motives increases inferences of hypocrisy independent of changes in the actions themselves. Taken together, these results demonstrate that Bayesian analyses of weak arguments may have implications for assessing moral reasoning. (shrink)

There is contrast to the belief that all energy and matter came into existence after the Big Bang. If we wish to understand the way the Greeks and other philosophers view our environment, we need to study the data that was collected by them. This book sees our portrayal of reality as having its departure point in concrete systems by which means of conceptual systems result in abstracted systems. This data must be sorted and information must now be surveyed, structured, (...) and analysed to find qualities and connections between the different aspects systems thinking. This has led to the theory for 'Living Systems'. It gives examples of applications which a basis for further studies of systems can be formed. The Internet now provides a major advantage to the retrieval of statistical information and opens a means for the future exploration and verification of how systems work. (shrink)

Recension av Caterina Stenius, ”Sanningen är alltid större. En essä på sju famnars djup” (Vasa: Förlaget Scriptum, 2022).

A common basis for the project on which this volume is based is that one cannot understand religion and ethics without paying attention to the different contexts in, and by means of which, these cultural elements are expressed. This approach makes both religion and ethics liquid, and allows us to see them as based on specific contingencies rather than as expressions of some essential features. The changing societal and cultural conditions in late modern Western societies pose new challenges for established (...) religion, theology and ethics: Not only does religion itself appear to be in some kind of crisis, but also many of the established ways of understanding and doing religion, theology and ethics appear obsolete, inadequate or dated. Against such a backdrop, the articles in the present volume represent attempts to rethink theology and religion with regard to these late modern conditions. The volume is the result of a joint undertaking of two research groups, one based inAbo, Finland, and the other in Oslo, Norway, which have since 2006 focused on exploring the contextual character of theology in understanding both Christian belief and Christian ethics. The challenge of the idea that Christianity appears in new ways - and in "new" contexts, and of investigating what that means, is pursued in various ways. (shrink)

Der Abschluß der Gastrulation, der gleichzeitig auch den Anfang der Neurulation bedeutet, ist die zeitliche Grenze, die Beginn eines menschlichen Individuums markiert. Oft wird behauptet, daß jegliche natürliche Veränderung stetig ist. Wie ist es dann aber möglich, eine zeitliche Grenze auszuzeichnen, an der ein menschliches Lebewesen zu existieren beginnt? Man beachte, was geschieht, wenn wir vom Thema zeitlicher Unstetigkeit zum räumlichen übergehen. Lebewesen haben räumliche Grenzen (wie sie durch ihre Haut geformt wird). Die letzteren sind genuine Diskontinuitäten, auch angesichts der (...) Kontinuität der Materie in der physikalischen Welt. Und ebenso müssen wir schließen: Das Leben menschlicher Lebewesen hat zeitliche Grenzen - seinen Beginn und sein Ende - die auch angesichts der Kontinuität physikalischer, chemischer und biologischer Prozesse, in die sie involviert sind, echte Diskontinuitäten sind. (shrink)

Hesiod, um 700 vor Christus im armlichen Bootien lebend, ist nur wenig junger als Homer. Obwohl er von der hexametrischen Epik der "Ilias" und der "Odyssee" stark beeinflusst ist, bietet er in seinen beiden Werken "Vom Ursprung der Gotter" und "Werke und Tage" etwas vollig Neues: Zum ersten Mal in der europaischen Literaturgeschichte tritt uns ein Autor als Person entgegen. Er selbst erzahlt, wie die Musen ihm beim Schafehuten erschienen und den jungen Menschen zum Dichter beriefen.Ausserdem wird Hesiod zum (...) Vater einer eigenen literarischen Gattung: des Lehrgedichts. Er bringt die gottlichen Machte in verwandtschaftliche Beziehungen; so entsteht eine Deutung des Weltganzen, die bereits auf die philosophischen Entwurfe der vorsokratischen Denker vorausweist. Indem er die Erzahlungen uber die Gotter zusammenfasst und ordnet, wird Hesiod zur wichtigsten Quelle des griechischen Mythos. In den "Werken und Tagen," einer Art Bauernkalender, in den Bruchstucke einer ersten Autobiographie und einige beruhmte Sagen eingestreut sind, wirkt Hesiod mit seiner pessimistischen Beurteilung des eigenen Zeitalters erstaunlich aktuell. Mit Einfuhrung, Erlauterungen und Literaturhinweisen von E.G. Schmidt.". (shrink)

ZusammenfassungDer Beitrag geht von der These aus, dass Goethes Arbeit an der ›klassischen‹ Dramenform sich einer tieferen Einsicht in die zeitliche wie rechtliche Problematik der ›tragédie classique‹ verdankt als allgemein angenommen. Dabei dürfte es maßgeblich die Französische Revolution gewesen sein, die eine neue Attraktivität der ›alten‹ Form bewirkte. Das zeigt sich vor allem an Die Natürliche Tochter, einem Stück, in dessen Entstehungszeit nicht zufällig Goethes Übersetzungen zweier Dramen Voltaires fallen. Figurationen politischer Gründung und Legitimation bildeten das Zentrum des ›klassischen‹ Dramas (...) bereits bei Corneille und stellten es zuverlässig auf eine um 1800 für konservative Autoren aktuelle Zerreißprobe. Die forciert gelassene Präsentation legitimer Herrschaft unter der Berufung auf Zeitkontinuität und lang währende ›Gewohnheiten‹ stand in der ›tragédie classique‹ nämlich in massiver Spannung zur normativen Forderung der ›Einheit‹ der Zeit, die das Drama auf eine disziplinierte Zeitökonomie und idealerweise sogar auf die Synchronisierung von dargestellter Zeit und Zeit der Darstellung verpflichtete. Dort, wo Corneille solche Spannungen entweder zu kaschieren oder politisch zu nutzen versuchte, reißt Goethe in Die Natürliche Tochter zwischen Figurenrede und Dramaturgie eine unüberwindbare Kluft und lässt ursprüngliche Funktionen der ›klassischen‹ Zeitökonomie konsequent leerlaufen. Sein Drama betreibt demnach keine restaurative Formpolitik, sondern führt die historische Uneinholbarkeit der ›klassischen‹ Form angesichts zeitgenössischer politischer Entwicklungen vor.The contribution is prompted by the observation that Goethe had deep insight into the temporal and legal problems of the ›tragédie classique,‹ which was fundamental to his work on the ›classical‹ drama. It was most likely the upheaval in the wake of the French Revolution that rendered the ›old‹ form more attractive. This is especially true for Die Natürliche Tochter. The play was, not coincidentally, written at the same time as Goethe’s translations of two of Voltaire’s dramas. Meanwhile, figurations of political foundation and legitimation had already advanced to the centre of ›classical‹ drama in Corneille’s work. The enforced serene presentation of legitimate rule of the ›tragédie classique,‹ with its reference to the continuity of time and age-old ›habits,‹ was in massive tension with the normative demand for the ›unity‹ of time, which committed the drama to a disciplined economy of time – ideally even to a synchronization of time represented and the time of representation. Where Corneille attempted to either conceal or politically exploit such tensions, Goethe in Die Natürliche Tochter forces an insurmountable chasm between dramaturgy and the speech of the characters and consistently allows the original functions of the ›classical‹ economy of time to run dry. Thus, his drama does not pursue a restorative politics of form, but rather demonstrates the historical unassailability of the ›classical‹ form in the face of contemporary political developments. (shrink)