The aim of synthetic biology is to rationally design devices, systems, and organisms with desired innovative and useful functions (Slusarczyk, Lin, and Weiss 2012). To achieve this aim, synthetic biology uses a concept similar to engineering sciences: well-characterized and standardized modular biological building blocks are reassembled in a systematic and rational manner to generate complex devices and systems with a predicted function. In the past, molecular biological research in combination with intense work in new research areas like systems biology and (...) functional genomics revealed a large inventory of multifaceted modular biological parts that are now in the toolboxes of synthetic biologists. Due to .. (shrink)

Die in diesem Buch vorgestellten Theorien der Herrschaft zielen auf die Sozialbeziehungen und deren Legitimität. Sie beginnen mit Niccolo Machiavelli, in dessen Denken der Staat eine ähnlich zentrale Position einnimmt wie in den Vertragstheorien des neuzeitlichen Naturrechts von Thomas Hobbes und Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Von Bedeutung wird dabei die politische Machbarkeit der staatlichen Institutionen, die Karl Marx und Friedrich Engels, aber auch Max Horkheimer und Theodor W. Adorno kritisch hinterfragen. Zuvor haben Max Weber und Robert Michels den charismatischen beziehungsweise den (...) faschistischen Führerstaat mit Nachdruck propagiert. Insgesamt eine von der kritischen Politischen Philosophie her motivierte Ideengeschichte. (shrink)

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) is an organization which seeks to identify the causes of human cancer. Per agent, such as betel quid or Human Papillomaviruses, they review the available evidence deriving from epidemiological studies, animal experiments and information about mechanisms (and other data). The evidence of the different groups is combined such that an overall assessment of the carcinogenicity of the agent in question is obtained. In this paper, we critically review the IARC’s carcinogenicity evaluations. First (...) we show that serious objections can be raised against their criteria and procedures – more specifically regarding the role of mechanistic knowledge in establishing causal claims. Our arguments are based on the problem of confounders, of the assessment of the temporal stability of carcinogenic relations, and of the extrapolation from animal experiments. Then we address a very important question, viz. how we should treat the carcinogenicity evaluations that were based on the current procedures. After showing that this question is important, we argue that an overall dismissal of the current evaluations would be too radical. Instead, we argue in favour of a stepwise re-evaluation of the current findings. (shrink)

Editorial para o dossiê Nietzsche e a Educação.

Incommensurability of scientific theories, as conceived by Thomas Kuhnand Paul Feyerabend, is thought to be a major or even insurmountable obstacletothe empirical comparison of these theories. I examine this problem in light ofaconcrete case from the history of experimental biology, namely the oxidativephosphorylation controversy in biochemistry (ca. 1961-1977). After a briefhistorical exposition, I show that the two main competing theories which werethe subject of the ox-phos controversy instantiate some of the characteristicfeatures of incommensurable theories, namely translation failure,non-corresponding predictions, and different (...) claims about what kinds ofentitiesexist in the world. By examining how the controversy was eventually resolved, Ithen show that at least this pair of incommensurable theories couldneverthelessbe empirically compared. (shrink)

The present paper has the purpose of making a critical approach of the so called “independence thesis” (Unabhängigkeitsthese) between Law and Ethics based on the Kantian text about equity in his Doctrine of Law. To this critical approach, a weakening of the “independence thesis” is demonstrated according to some endogenous concepts of the Kant work, which we believe deals with an oblique opening of the Kantian’s law to ethics. To demonstrate this, we follow a methodological analytic way divided in three (...) moments: (i) an analysis of the concept of law in Kant; (ii) an explanatory approach of the “independence thesis”; and (iii) a critical approach of the “independence thesis”. (shrink)

Georgius Agricola had not only for centuries been an authoritative figure in the earth sciences but he was also deeply involved in political and cultural reorganisation at the beginning of the 16th century. He strove for a new understanding of science attaching to it the quality of observing reality and the necessity of putting these observations into a systematic order, thus previewing the encyclopedic movement of the enlightenment. He could do this in a frame-work which was lent from the De-re-rustica-literature (...) which still acceptedvenatio, cursiositas andvirtuositas as preconditions for scientific research as well as for political activity. (shrink)

New approaches to coherent interaction processes are presented, for the weak and the gravitational interactions. Very large cross sections appear possible. These developments provide new foundations for neutrino and gravitational radiation astronomy.

Technology penetrates into all areas of our everyday and individual life and changes it in a considerable speed. This applies particularly to developments of information and communication technology since this technology shows its effects not only at our workplaces but transforms and sometimes determines the social behavior of people. Unfortunately, development and use of technology certainly doesn't go hand into hand with the acceptance of responsibility for consequences of effects of developing and using technology. Instead, the opposite behavior is quite (...) common. If this process of the rejection of responsibility shall be stopped, the sensibility of developers and users of technology for consequences of their own behavior have to be aroused and strengthened. In the following text at first I will describe some reasons to formulate ethical guidelines. After this, with the example of the ethical guidelines of the German Gesellschaft für Informatik e. V. (GI), I will discuss, whether such ethical guidelines are ethical in the strict sense of the word and whether they actually can be a contribution to accomplish the striven aim of assignment of responsibility for the results of developing and using technolog. (shrink)

Parmi les nombreux problèmes que pose l’ouvrage de Carl Schmitt Le Léviathan dans la doctrine de l’État de Thomas Hobbes, il en est un, majeur, qui concerne l’utilisation de la « mythologie politique » pour expliquer la réalité ou les doctrines politiques. Il y a là, à n’en pas douter, l’expression de l’un des versants de l’irrationalisme de Schmitt. La thèse de l’auteur est très claire : parce que Hobbes ne possédait aucun « sens mythologique », il s’est trompé de (...) monstre biblique, appelant Leviathan son traité consacré au pouvoir d’État, alors qu’il aurait dû l’appeler plus adéquatement Behemoth, manquant du coup la Meeresbild caractérisant l’Angleterre de son temps. La thèse peut paraître séduisante, elle s’appuie néanmoins sur un présupposé fort contestable, car Hobbes ne vise nullement à créer des mythes. Il s’agit donc d’interroger la théorisation hobbesienne de la piraterie, d’une part, et de la dissidence religieuse « sauvage », d’autre part, afin de montrer que le choix par Hobbes des monstres du Livre de Job est un choix rationnellement assumé. (shrink)

This introduction clarifies the ideas behind the Logic, Reasoning and Rationality congress from which the papers in this issue are selected. These ideas are situated in the history of 20th century philosophy (Vienna Circle, Kuhn, ...). We also give an overview of the papers in this issue.

The main results of the present paper are the following theorems: 1. There is no e ∈ ω such that for any A, B ⊆ ω, SA = Wmath image is simple in A, and if A′ [TRIPLE BOND]TB′, then SA =* SB. 2 There is an e ∈ ω such that for any A, B ⊆ ω, MA = We is incomplete maximal in A, and if A =* B, then MA [TRIPLE BOND]TMB.

IOs are suffering a loss of legitimacy, and both social and technological changes associated with globalization will make it harder for IOs to recapture the power to affect the behavior of other actors in world politics.

"La filosofí­a florentina en el jardí­n de Adán" La Modernidad ha tenido enormes dificultades para reconocer plenamente al Humanismo como parte de toda su incuestionable tradición filosófica y en particular de reconocer al Humanismo florentino a partir de sus propuestas filosóficas como lo que en esencia ellas son, representaciones concretas, históricas, del mundo. Tales dificultades radican en la imposibilidad de no poder o no querer superar sus propios parámetros y esquemas de explicación y reconstrucción histórica. Pues si algo es cierto, (...) es que filosofí­as como las de Pico della la Mirandola, Marsilio Ficino, Poliziano, Pomponazzi, Tommaso Campanella y Giordano Bruno, contienen todas ellas una constante común: la dificultad de ser explicadas y comprendidas a la luz de la razón y de la cientificidad modernas. "The Florentine philosophy in Adam's garden" The Modernity had had enormous difficulties to recognize fully the Humanism like apart of all its unquestionable philosophical tradition and in particular of recognizing the Florentine Humanism starting from its philosophical proposals as what in essence they are, concrete, historical representations, of the world. Such difficulties reside in the impossibility of not to be able, or not to want to overcome, their own parameters and explanation's outlines and historical reconstruction. Because if something is true, it is that philosophies like those of Pico della la Mirandola, Marsilio Ficino, Poliziano, Pomponazzi, Tommaso Campanella and Giordano Polish, all of them contain a common constant: the difficulty of being explained and understood by the light of the reason and in the modern scientific approach. (shrink)

In this discussion note I clarify the motivation behind my original paper "Social Mechanisms, Causal Inference and the Policy Relevance of Social Science." I argue that one of the tasks of philosophers of social science is to draw attention to methodological problems that are often forgotten or overlooked. Then I show that my original paper does not make the mistake or fallacy that Daniel Steel suggests in his comment on it. Key Words: social mechanisms • causal inference • social policy.