Over evolutionary time, humans have developed a selective sensitivity to features in the human face that convey information on sex, age, emotions, and intentions. This ability might not only be applied to our conspecifics nowadays, but also to other living objects (i.e., animals) and even to artificial structures, such as cars. To investigate this possibility, we asked people to report the characteristics, emotions, personality traits, and attitudes they attribute to car fronts, and we used geometric morphometrics (GM) and multivariate statistical (...) methods to determine and visualize the corresponding shape information. Automotive features and proportions are found to covary with trait perception in a manner similar to that found with human faces. Emerging analogies are discussed. This study should have implications for both our understanding of our prehistoric psyche and its interrelation with the modern world. (shrink)

This paper analyzes a European research project called ‘Deepening Ethical Engagement and Participation in Emerging Nanotechnologies’ with the abbreviation DEEPEN. The DEEPEN’s findings and conclusions on the narratives, public understandings and the lay ethics of nanotechnologies are examined in a critical manner. Through a criticism of the theoretical framings of what constitutes a narrative and the application of a different theoretical framing of narratives, the paper argues that the findings and conclusion of the DEEPEN should be approached with caution as (...) there are several unjustified claims concerning the contextualization of the findings. Such claims pertain to the theoretical framing of narratives, virtue ethics, modernity, lay attitudes, and earlier research. (shrink)

Empowerment and user participation represents an ideal of power with a strong position in the health sector. In this article we use text analysis to investigate notions of power in a program plan for health workers focusing on empowerment. Issues addressed include: How are relationships of power between users and helpers described in the program plan? Which notions of user participation are embedded in the plan? The analysis is based on Foucault’s idea that power which is made subject to attempts (...) of redistribution will re-emerge in other forms. How this happens, and with what consequences, is our analytical concern. The analysis is contrasted with ‘snapshots’ from everyday life in a nursing home. The program plan communicates empowerment as a democracy-building instrument that the users need. It is a tool for providing expert assistance to the user’s self-help. User participation is made into a tool which is external to the user him-/herself. Furthermore, the analysis shows that the plan’s image of empowerment presupposes an ‘élite user’ able to articulate personal needs and desires. This is not very applicable to the most vulnerable user groups, who thereby may end up in an even weaker position. By way of conclusion, we argue that an exchange of undesirable dominating paternalism for a desirable empowerment will not abolish power, but may result in more covert and subtle forms of power that are less open to criticism. The paper offers insights that will facilitate reflections on the premises for practising empowerment-oriented health care. (shrink)

People tell stories. In stories, the narrator and the receiver can perceive meanings. These meanings can be analyzed again through larger interpretative framings. In this article, different ethical uses of the golem story are analyzed by making use of some of Jörn Rüsen’s ideas concerning historical thinking and narration and with a focus on the uses of the golem myth in studies and discussions on new and emerging science and technology.

The presence of experts holding patents and simultaneously providing policy advice on areas where they hold patents pose several normative questions. Through a comparative study of several IPCC reports, this article documents the scope of this phenomenon and discusses it with respect to a theory of conflict of interest. Seemingly, it is more likely to be patent-holders on issues of infrastructures, industry and transport rather than for single technologies as such. According to insights from studies on conflict of interest, there (...) is an increased risk for bias. The article investigates the possible relations between patenting and conflicts of interest according to theoretical and empirical insights from the relation between science and society. (shrink)

The approach to innovations known as Responsible research and innovation aims to move the innovation system towards creating products that strive to realize social values along with economic benefits. This paper discusses the systematic assessment of assistive technologies in order for them to meet the aims expressed in RRI. A central issue in the discussion is how to facilitate an integration of insights from the discourse on RRI with more established assessment approaches such as Health Technology Assessment. Based on the (...) literature on existing socio-ethical assessment tools, I investigate how these tools can be combined with HTA and how they can add perspectives from RRI that might increase the socio-ethical value of assistive technologies. Through a discussion on how to understand RRI, HTA, assessment and integration, I suggest a list of four possible approaches that have the potential to be applied as assessment approaches that integrate insights from RRI and HTA. These are then evaluated on their ability to address issues that have emerged from a literature review on RRI and assistive technologies, on empirical studies in this technology field and on their product focus. In conclusion, I argue that the Ethical Impact Assessment, the Socratic approach, the Ethical Matrix, and the HTA Core Model seem to be the most promising methodologies, but that these need adjustments to cover substantive themes from RRI. _Keywords:_ energy scenarios, justice, future generations, capabilities approach. (shrink)

A number of EU institutions and government committees across Europe have expressed interest in developing methods and decision-support tools to facilitate consideration of the ethical dimensions of biotechnology assessment. As part of the work conducted in the EC supported project on ethical tools (Ethical Bio-TA Tools), a number of ethical frameworks with the potential to support the work of public policy decision-makers has been characterized and evaluated. One of these potential tools is the Delphi method. The Delphi method was originally (...) developed to assess variables that are intangible and/or shrouded in uncertainty by drawing on the knowledge and abilities of a diverse group of experts through a form of anonymous and iterative consultation. The method has hitherto been used by a diversity of practitioners to explore issues such as technology assessment, environmental planning, and public health measures. From the original (classical) Delphi, a family of Delphi-related processes has emerged. As a result of the evaluation of the various Delphi processes, it is proposed that the classical method can be further developed and applied as a form of ethical framework to assist policy-makers. Through a series of exercises and trials, an Ethical Delphi has been developed as a potential approach for characterizing ethical issues raised by the use of novel biotechnologies. Advantages and disadvantages of the method are discussed. Further work is needed to develop the procedural aspects of the Ethical Delphi method and to test its use in different cultural contexts. However, utilizing an ethical framework of this type combines the advantages of a methodical approach to capture ethical aspects with the democratic virtues of transparency and openness to criticism. Ethical frameworks such as the Ethical Delphi should contribute to better understanding of and decision-making on issues that involve decisive ethical dimensions. (shrink)

Despite a growing interest in research on spiritual formation, prior studies have not discussed the role of leadership in the formation of Christian character. This article seeks to fill this void by addressing how 1 Thessalonians in general, and 2:1–12 in particular, show Paul's goal and method of leadership for community formation. Written as a letter of friendship to a persecuted church, Paul draws attention to his prior visit in the city as a plumb line for Christian behavior and leadership. (...) As such, the letter contributes to the resocialization of Paul's recent converts, stressing the relationship with himself as well as with each other amidst a hostile environment. The study concludes that Paul's leadership is Christocentric in nature, having modeling, adaptability, and relationships as central components. (shrink)

As part of the international efforts to observe the Venus transit of June 1769, Protestant Denmark-Norway engaged the Viennese astronomer Maximilian Hell, despite Hell being Catholic and even Jesuit. Hell’s site of observation was Vardø in the remote northeastern corner of Norway. He had ambitions to present his journey and scientific results—which reached far beyond astronomy—in a grand work entitled Expeditio litteraria ad Polum arcticum. This work was never printed, although several fragments were published otherwise. Among the pieces not published (...) were his geomagnetic observations. Hell’s original manuscripts contain a considerable amount of declination readings as well as notes on instruments, practical procedures, and theoretical reflections involved in his work. In Vardø he set up a magnetic observatory, along with the astronomical one, and recorded, on an irregular schedule, the magnetic declination several times a day from April to June 1769. The records exhibit a clear signature of the diurnal variation as well as magnetic storms. Hell vigorously refuted contemporary suggestions of a connection between magnetic storms and Northern Lights. On the return voyage, a number of observations of magnetic declination along Norway were carried out, with a technique combining a gnomon with observations of the Sun’s altitude with a quadrant. (shrink)

I defend what I take to be a genuinely Kantian view on temporal extension: time is not an object but a human horizon of concrete particulars. As such, time depends on the existence of embodied human subjects. It does not, however, depend on those subjects determined as spatial objects. Starting with a realist notion of “apperception” as applied to indexical space, I proceed with the need for external criteria of temporal duration. In accordance with Kant’s Second Analogy of Experience, these (...) criteria are found in concepts and laws of motion and change. I then see what follows from this for a reasonable notion of transcendental idealism. Finally, in support of my Kantian conclusions, I argue for the transcendentally subjective nature of particular temporal extension. (shrink)

In his ‘pains and Places’ (Philosophy 78, 2003), John Hyman is right that pains are not located in their causes or effects but in the hurting limbs. However, his position may be consonant with Wittgensteinian expressivism or the view that consciousness is the locus of pain: In producing its own parts, a living organism ‘autopoietically’ sustains itself as an activity functionally present in its limbs. It thus supplies the biological basis for pain consciousness as something wholly present in organs that (...) hurt. (Published Online October 13 2005). (shrink)

‚Erfahrung ist eine verstandene Wahrnehmung‘ Die hier vorgeschlagene Kant-Interpretation stellt eine nicht-repräsentationalistische Version seiner Theorie der raumzeitlichen Erkenntnis dar. So befindet sie sich nicht nur im Gegensatz zu herkömmlichen Lesarten deutlich mentalistischer Prägung, sondern opponiert im allgemeinen gegen repräsentationalistische Auslegungen des Verhältnisses zwischen Wahrnehmung und Wissen. Wie sehr man sich dabei auf ein interpretatorisches Minenfeld hinaus bewegen kann – davon zeugt das folgende Schlusswort einer Lexikon-Eintragung zu Kantischen und anderen Varianten des Idealismus: „In the end, the only argument for idealism (...) of any form is to be found in the representative theory of perception, and that theory is false“. Formulierungen wie diese sind in verschiedenen Traditionen der Interpretation tief verwurzelt und können nicht ohne weiteres als extreme Einzeläusserungen abgetan werden – um so weniger, als repräsentationalistische oder auch mentalistische Lesarten der theoretischen Philosophie Kants immer noch einen wichtigen Trend darstellen. (shrink)

The Ethical Matrix was developed to help decision-makers explore the ethical issues raised by agri-food biotechnologies. Over the decade since its inception the Ethical Matrix has been used by a number of organizations and the philosophical basis of the framework has been discussed and analyzed extensively. The role of tools such as the Ethical Matrix in public policy decision-making has received increasing attention. In order to further develop the methodological aspects of the Ethical Matrix method, work was carried out to (...) study the potential role of the Ethical Matrix as a decision support framework. When considering which frameworks to apply when analyzing the ethical dimensions of the application of agri-food biotechnologies, it is important to clarify the substantive nature of any prospective framework. In order to further investigate this issue, reflections on the neologism “ethical soundness” of an ethical framework are presented here. This concept is introduced in order to provide more structured evaluations of a range of ethical tools, including ethical frameworks such as the Ethical Matrix. As well as examining the philosophical dimensions of the method, theoretical analysis and literature studies were combined with stakeholder engagement exercises and consultations in order to review the Ethical Matrix from a user perspective. This work resulted in the development of an Ethical Matrix Manual, which is intended to act as a guide for potential user groups. (shrink)

Of what does the size of spatially and temporally extended phenomena consist? The particular, non-conceptual magnitude of a spatial thing is a determinate, world-defining unit size. Correspondingly, natural objects have a definite size in relation to embodied human subjectivity as a global ‘measure of worlds’. As displayed by the occurrence of global models in human life, this relation has an irreducibly indexical character. The particular temporal extension of events is intrinsic to human experience as well – albeit in a different (...) way. As displayed in local models only, it is a conceivable object of practical but not of propositional knowledge. In its role as a global spatial measure, somehow the human body is more than one among the many possible objects of descriptive knowledge. This role is supplied by rational agency – which is then a condition of the world. (shrink)

Gegen von Wright und andere Anhänger nicht-kausaler Handlungserklärungen hat Davidson argumentiert, daß Handlungen nicht nur als sinnvolles Verhalten konzeptuell verstanden, sondern auch durch singulare Ursachen als ihre „wahren” Motive erklärt werden. Dem entspricht auch der von Perry und anderen nachgewiesene indexikalische Charakter eines jeden Handlungsbewußtseins. Da jedoch ein singuläres Handlungsbewußtsein auch zukunfisgerichtet ist, hat das entsprechende, indexikalische Motiv keine von der erst zu realisierenden Handlung unabhängige Existenz. Die Handlung wird eher als eine „Wirkung von der Zukunft” verstanden, und so haben (...) die Anti-Kausalisten recht, daß bei Handlungserklärungen nicht auf Humesche Ursachen hingewiesen wird. (shrink)

Gegen von Wright und andere Anhänger nicht-kausaler Handlungserklärungen hat Davidson argumentiert, daß Handlungen nicht nur als sinnvolles Verhalten konzeptuell verstanden, sondern auch durch singulare Ursachen als ihre „wahren” Motive erklärt werden. Dem entspricht auch der von Perry und anderen nachgewiesene indexikalische Charakter eines jeden Handlungsbewußtseins. Da jedoch ein singuläres Handlungsbewußtsein auch zukunfisgerichtet ist, hat das entsprechende, indexikalische Motiv keine von der erst zu realisierenden Handlung unabhängige Existenz. Die Handlung wird eher als eine „Wirkung von der Zukunft” verstanden, und so haben (...) die Anti-Kausalisten recht, daß bei Handlungserklärungen nicht auf Humesche Ursachen hingewiesen wird. (shrink)

From two not very controversial premises I argue for a variant of transcendental idealism: Space is a non-conceptual system of particular distances and directions. As a possible object of propositional truth, distance or size is relational. But means the collapse of : In relationally equivalent worlds, one cannot distinguish between particular and conceptual size. What is needed for particular distance being an objective property of things is a global measure of such worlds. This is supplied by rational, indexical agency.

Every human being may be said to be a philosopher, endowed with the capacity to reflect on her own life as part of some general worldview or even 'ontology'. With that said, it is not obvious what kind of philosophical training a state-organized, state-funded educational system should support. This paper seeks an answer to this problem in a Kantian understanding of enlightenment: in transcendental philosophy, what corresponds to a formal notion of ontology is reason, and the autonomy of reason is (...) realized in free and equal citizens governing themselves according to their own best judgment. A precondition of such government is a certain general level of rationality and reflection among the populace, a level to be fostered by public philosophy education. This may warrant closer, 'dialogic' ties between teaching and research as the best way for students to develop their capacity for philosophical thinking. It may also favour the taking of a critical stance on the more scientistic approach dominating much of today's mainstream philosophy. (shrink)