CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Philosophy originates in man's amazement over the richness and complexity of reality. It attempts to articulate in words and ...

The hermeneutical ontology proposed in this book steers away from the rocks of realism and anti-realism.

Augustinus interpretiert als erster Denker in der zum Christentum be kehrten Welt das Geschehen auf Erden als sinnvolle Geschichte mit der Absicht, dem zentralen Dogma von Inkarnation und Erl6sung gerecht zu werden. Die Bibel beschreibt den Anfang der Welt und spricht auch von ihrem Ende. Die Zeit dazwischen umfasst nach Augustinus' Auffassung die Geschichte vom Slindenfall, von der Er- 16sung durch Christus und vom Wachsen der christlichen Gemeinschaft bis zu Christi erwarteter Wiederkehr. Christi Leben auf Erden ist flir Augustinus kein (...) Symbol, kein Mythos, sondern eine irdische Realitat, welche sich an einem bestimmten Ort zu einer bestimmten Zeit ab spielte. Das zentrale und einmalige Geschehnis der Inkarnation lasst die Vergangenheit als eine Vorbereitung flir dies en Moment erscheinen und sie gibt der Zukunft Richtung. Augustinus weist die antike Auf fassung der Geschichte als eine ewige Wiederholung und Verjlingung des Kosmos ab und stellt dieser die Auffassung eines Ablaufs des Weltgeschehens gegenliber, dessen einziges Ziel das Heil der Mensch heit ist. Augustinus ist der Grlinder der Geschichtstheologie. Das mittelalterliche Denken ist ganz von Augustinus' Weltkon zeption beherrscht. Der Glaubige weiss, dass das anscheinend will klirliche Geschehen auf Erden von Gott gelenkt wird. Flir ein naheres Verstandnis der verwirrenden Welt wendet man sich im Mittelalter also der Offenbarung zu, dem Schllissel flir jedes Verstehen der Welt. Die Interpretation der Geschichte auf Grund der Bibel gibt mit Hilfe von biblischen Vorbildern, Priifigurationen, Allegorien und Typolo gien, den konkreten Ereignissen einen religi6sen Sinn. (shrink)

Beschouwingen over de instandhouding van menselijkheid en moraal in het postmoderne relativisme.

Contemporary continental philosophy approaches metaphysics with great reservation. A point of criticism concerns traditional philosophical speaking about God. Whereas Nietzsche, with his question "God is dead; who killed Him?" was, in his time, highly 'unzeitgemäß' and shocking, the twentieth century by contrast, saw Heidegger's concept of 'onto-theology' and its implied problematization of the God of the metaphysicians quickly become a famous term. In Heidegger's words, to a philosophical concept or 'being' we can neither pray, nor kneel. Heidegger did not, however, (...) return to the God of Christian faith. He tried to initiate a new way of speaking about God--a way that reveals the limits of philosophical discourse. Derrida, Marion, Bataille, Adorno, Taubes and Bakhtin, each in their own way, continue this exploration begun by Nietzsche and Heidegger. This book takes a fresh look at these developments. The 'death of God' as the editors say in an introductory study, announces not so much the death of the 'old God'--the God of philosophers, theologians and believers--but rather the death of the god who put himself on His throne: autonomous human reason. In listening to the reactions to this dethronement of autonomous reason, the editors believe they hear the echoes of an experience of an embarrassment rooted partly in an old medieval tradition: negative theology. With the death of this 'new god', might a sensitivity reappear for transcendence? Here the editors want to offer a platform where contemporary philosophers of culture can again pose the question of speaking about God. (shrink)

Vibrant Death links philosophy and poetry-based, corpo-affectively grounded knowledge seeking. It offers a radically new materialist theory of death, critically moving the philosophical argument beyond Christian and secular-mechanistic understandings. The book's ethico-political figuration of vibrant death is shaped through a pluriversal conversation between Deleuzean philosophy, neo-vitalist materialism and the spiritual materialism of decolonial, queerfeminist poet and scholar Gloria Anzaldua. The book's posthuman deexceptionalizing of human death unfurls together with a collection of poetry, and autobiographical stories. They are analysed through the (...) lens of a posthuman, queerfeminist revision of the method of autophenomenography (phenomenological analysis of autobiographical material). Nina Lykke explores the speaking position of a mourning, queerfeminine "I", who contemplates the relationship with her dead beloved lesbian life partner. She reflects on her enactment of processes of co-becoming with the phenomenal and material traces of the deceased body, and the new assemblages with which it has merged through death's material metamorphoses: becoming-ashes through cremation, and becoming-mixed-with-algae-sand when the ashes were scattered across a seabed made of fiftyfive million-year-old, fossilized algae. It is argued that the mourning "I"'s intimate bodily empathizing (theorized as symphysizing) with her deceased, queermasculine beloved life partner facilitates the processes of vitalist-material and spiritual-material co-becoming, and the rethinking of death from a new and different perspective than that of the sovereign, philosophical subject. (shrink)

Philosophers and scientists both ask questions about what the world is like. How do these fields interact with one another? How should they? Naturalism Beyond the Limits of Science investigates an approach to these questions called methodological naturalism. According to methodological naturalism, when coming up with theories about what the world is like, philosophers should, whenever possible, make use of the same methodology that is deployed by scientists. Although many contemporary philosophers have implicit commitments that lead straightforwardly to methodological naturalism, (...) few have a clear understanding of how widespread and disruptive methodological naturalism promises to be for the field. By way of a series of case studies involving laws of nature, composition, time and modality, and drawing on historical and contemporary scientific developments including the discovery of the neutrino, the introduction of dark energy, and the advent of relativity theory, this book demonstrates the ways in which scientists rely on extra-empirical reasoning and how that very same extra-empirical reasoning can yield surprising results when applied to philosophical debates. Along the way, Nina Emery's investigation illuminates the complex relationship between philosophy and the sciences, and makes the case that philosophers and scientists alike would benefit from a greater understanding of the connections between the two fields. (shrink)

Das Sterben wird längst nicht mehr verdrängt und verschwiegen, es gehört vielmehr zu den ausgiebig erörterten Themen unserer Zeit. Viele Debatten ranken sich um Sterbehilfe und um die Frage, was einen guten Tod ausmacht. Dabei scheinen wir uns bemerkenswert einig zu sein, dass gut stirbt, wer bis zuletzt er oder sie selbst bleibt. Wir wünschen uns, so die These dieses Buches, unseren 'eigenen Tod': ein Lebensende, wie es uns entspricht, ein authentisches Sterben. Dieses Ideal leitet in unterschiedlicher Weise die Palliativversorgung (...) und die Sterbehilfebewegung an. Doch Nina Streeck zeigt, dass sich das, was so erstrebenswert klingt, als anspruchsvoll entpuppt. Die Idee des 'eigenen Todes' droht sich in ihr Gegenteil zu verkehren: in einen Zwang zum authentischen Sterben."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

Accountability and responsibility are key concepts in the academic and societal debate on Autonomous Weapon Systems, but these notions are often used as high-level overarching constructs and are not operationalised to be useful in practice. “Meaningful Human Control” is often mentioned as a requirement for the deployment of Autonomous Weapon Systems, but a common definition of what this notion means in practice, and a clear understanding of its relation with responsibility and accountability is also lacking. In this paper, we present (...) a definition of these concepts and describe the relations between accountability, responsibility, control and oversight in order to show how these notions are distinct but also connected. We focus on accountability as a particular form of responsibility—the obligation to explain one’s action to a forum—and we present three ways in which the introduction of Autonomous Weapon Systems may create “accountability gaps”. We propose a Framework for Comprehensive Human Oversight based on an engineering, socio-technical and governance perspective on control. Our main claim is that combining the control mechanisms at technical, socio-technical and governance levels will lead to comprehensive human oversight over Autonomous Weapon Systems which may ensure solid controllability and accountability for the behaviour of Autonomous Weapon Systems. Finally, we give an overview of the military control instruments that are currently used in the Netherlands and show the applicability of the comprehensive human oversight Framework to Autonomous Weapon Systems. Our analysis reveals two main gaps in the current control mechanisms as applied to Autonomous Weapon Systems. We have identified three first options as future work for the design of a control mechanism, one in the technological layer, one in the socio-technical layer and one the governance layer, in order to achieve comprehensive human oversight and ensure accountability over Autonomous Weapon Systems. (shrink)

Cet ouvrage présente le résultat des réflexions engagées depuis 2015 par le réseau d'écoles doctorales Création, Art & Médias (Rescam) sur le doctorat de recherche en création, et concrétisées lors de deux colloques: le premier organisé à l'université Toulouse-Jean Jaurès en 2016, le second à la Sorbonne Nouvelle en 2017. 0Afin de s'interroger sur cette pratique de recherche si particulière que constitue la recherche en création et sur les formats possibles des doctorats qui en résultent, les différents acteurs français et (...) étrangers de la recherche en art, côté université et côté école d'art ont été sollicités. (shrink)

How does the Social Lab methodology support participatory research? This paper provides an evidence-based analysis of experiences of 19 implemented Social Labs applying experiential learning cycles on the question of how to induce Responsible Research and Innovation in the Horizon2020 research funding scheme of the European Commission and beyond. It looks at the potentials of Social Labs to allow participation in research and innovation addressing societal challenges and contrasts empirical results with the theoretical conceptualisation of a scientific Social Lab methodology. (...) It discusses drivers and barriers of engagement, and provides evidence for the impacts of experimental engagement on participation in the context of the labs, substantiated by concrete examples from some of these labs. (shrink)

A specific mapping mechanism is defined as the basic unit of “Biological Memory”. This mechanism must account for the characteristic frequency patterns in the organic world, where future probability is a function of past experience. The conditions for the function of biological memory are analysed. It is found that asymmetry, and irreversibility as a consequence of complexity, are the basic principles of memory function. The essential asymmetries in genetic memory are pointed out, and the problem of bilateral symmetry in a (...) basically asymmetrical organization is briefly outlined.Complexity is defined in terms of symmetry. The thermodynamic arrow of time and the biological arrow of time are discussed in relation to elementarity and complexity with their specific types of repeatabilities: non-accumulative in the first case and accumulative as a result of “copy-reproduction” by memory in the second case. The application of terminology from Information Theory and Thermodynamics to Memory Mechanics is critically considered.The immediate and inevitable consequences of memory function are shown to be irreversible expansion and irreversible, unpredictable diversification, leading to growing complexity and size on all but the sub-molecular levels of biological structure. (shrink)

Community acceptance still remains a challenge for wind energy projects. The most popular explanation for local opposition, the Not in My Backyard effect, has received fierce criticism in the past decade. Critics argue that opposition is not merely a matter of selfishness or ignorance, but that moral, ecological and aesthetic values play an important role. In order to better take such values into account, a more bottom-up, participatory decision process is usually proposed. Research on this topic focusses on either stakeholder (...) motivations/attitudes, or their behavior during project implementation. This paper proposes a third research focus, namely the ‘objects’ which elicit certain behavioral responses and attitudes—the wind turbine and parks. More concretely, this paper explores Value Sensitive Design as way to arrive at wind turbines and parks that better embed or reflect key values. After a critical discussion of the notion of acceptance versus acceptability and support, the paper discusses existing literature on ecology and aesthetics in relation to wind turbine/park design, which could serve as ‘building blocks’ of a more integral VSD approach of the topic. It also discusses the challenge of demarcating wind park projects as VSD projects. A further challenge is that VSD has been applied mainly at the level of technical artifacts, whereas wind parks can best be conceptualized as socio-technical system. This new application would therefore expand the current practice of VSD, and may as a consequence also lead to interesting new insights for the VSD community. The paper concludes that such an outcome-oriented approach of wind turbines and park is worth exploring further, as a supplement to rather than a replacement of the process-oriented approach that is promoted by the current literature on community acceptance of wind parks. (shrink)

A long tradition of psychological research has explored the distinction between characteristics that are part of the self and those that lie outside of it. Recently, a surge of research has begun examining a further distinction. Even among characteristics that are internal to the self, people pick out a subset as belonging to the true self. These factors are judged as making people who they really are, deep down. In this paper, we introduce the concept of the true self and (...) identify features that distinguish people’s understanding of the true self from their understanding of the self more generally. In particular, we consider recent findings that the true self is perceived as positive and moral, and that this tendency is actor-observer invariant and cross-culturally stable. We then explore possible explanations for these findings and discuss their implications for a variety of issues in psychology. (shrink)

The ninth edition of The Moral of the Story represents 25 years of editions, with the publication year of the first being 1994. It has been a humbling experience for me to contemplate the fact that I have been privileged to teach as well as write about issues that have concerned us for over a quarter of a century-some issues reflecting the changing times and others being timeless discussions about moral issues rooted in our common human nature.

Within the last decade, a growing number of artists, media activists and theorists have been engaged with the potential of the glitch – with processes and aesthetics that arise from visual errors in digital technologies. But glitches also offer clues to understanding normative knowledge and power systems, and to challenge these. This is relevant in critical approaches to photography and its historical role in forming, controlling and colonizing systems as well as conventional understandings of the medium as a transparent window (...) onto the world/reality. In this introduction we outline our approach to the glitch in the artistic and curatorial research project ‘Photography and the Glitch’, to which the contributors to this issue have contributed in various ways. (shrink)

It is argued that two different types of concept are often intermingled in discussions of Aktionsart. The most common type of classification is one of situation types, relating to the potential actualisation of a situation, although some of the definitions have to do with the actual realization of the situation. This distinction, adequately captured by the notions (a)telicity and (un)boundedness (Declerck 1989), is explored and it is shown how NPs, PPs and tense influence a sentence''s classification as (un)bounded.

I present an argument for the view that laws ground their instances. I then outline two important consequences that follow if we accept the conclusion of this argument. First, the claim that laws ground their instances threatens to undermine a prominent recent attempt to make sense of the explanatory power of Humean laws by distinguishing between metaphysical and scientific explanation. And second, the claim that laws ground their instances gives rise to a novel argument against the view that grounding relations (...) are metaphysically necessary. (shrink)

Enttäuschung ist ein ambivalentes Phänomen: Sie kränkt, weil sie Erwartungen widerlegt und düpiert, aber sie bringt den Wirklichkeitssinn auch wieder zurecht, weil sie von Täuschungen befreit. Das gilt für die alltägliche, lebensweltliche Erfahrung genauso wie für die Wissenschaften, die sie methodisch herbeiführen, wenn sie auf Falsifikation setzen. Erkenntnis ist dann: Gewinn durch Verlust. Wie aber hält der Mensch seine Enttäuschungen aus, und was geben sie ihm zu denken? Der Band versammelt interdisziplinäre Erkundungen zu einem Phänomen, das lieber vermieden als thematisiert (...) wird. Die Beiträge (u.a. von Brigitte Boothe, Saskia Wendel, Tilmann Borsche, Marc Föcking, Philipp Stoellger, Karl-Siegberg Rehberg und Heinrich Assel) beschreiben Enttäuschung samt den Facetten von Resignation und Ressentiment. Von Selbstverständlichkeiten, die unter Problematisierungsdruck zerfallen ist genauso die Rede wie von intersubjektiven Verletzungen und nicht-eingehaltenen Versprechen. Der Band zeichnet aber auch Wege nach, auf denen Desillusionierungen ertragreich werden und neue Aufmerksamkeit für die Wirklichkeit entsteht. Die Studien zur Enttäuschung aus Philosophie, Literaturwissenschaft, Psychoanalyse, Theologie und Soziologie zeigen den Menschen als ein "Wesen, das trotzdem lebt" (H. Blumenberg). (shrink)

Using poststructural criticism, we explore how the book of Job deconstructs the deed/consequence nexus that stands at the core of the Hebrew Bible’s theological framework – i.e. the doctrine of reward and punishment. Building on both Derridean deconstruction and Foucauldian resistance, we show that the book of Job refuses to comply with the opposite binary of reward and punishment. First, we demonstrate how the friends in their speeches enforce the binary and, thereby, exercise power over Job. Secondly, we consider Job’s (...) resistance and deconstruction of this binary through both his lived experience and desire to argue with God. Finally, we argue how Job’s desire to argue with God challenges God to defend themself in court. In God’s answer, however, one is introduced to a different God than as portrayed by Job’s friends. Moreover, God’s boastful reply, which lacks any justification for Job’s suffering, makes God appear fragile and weak. As such, this article argues that the book of Job may not merely deconstruct dominant ideology, but also God itself. (shrink)

Background: In the neonatal intensive care unit, immigrant parents may experience even greater anxiety than other parents, particularly if they and the nurses do not share a common language. Aim: To explore the complex issues of trust and the nurse–mother relationship in neonatal intensive care units when they do not share a common language. Design and methods: This study has a qualitative design. Individual semi-structured in-depth interviews and two focus group interviews were conducted with eight immigrant mothers and eight neonatal (...) intensive care unit nurses, respectively. Data analysis was based on Braun and Clarke’s thematic analytic method. Ethical considerations: Approval was obtained from the hospital’s Scientific Committee and the Data Protection Officer. Interviewees were informed in their native language about confidentiality and they signed an informed consent form. Results: Trust was a focus for mothers and nurses alike. The mothers held that they were satisfied that their infants received the very best care. They seemed to find the nurses’ care and compassion unexpected and said they felt empowered by learning how to care for their infant. The nurses discussed the mother’s vulnerability, dependency on their actions, attitudes and behaviour. Discussion: Lack of a common language created a challenge. Both parties depended on non-verbal communication and eye contact. The nurses found that being compassionate, competent and knowledgeable were important trust-building factors. The mothers were relieved to find that they were welcome, could feel safe and their infants were well cared for. Conclusion: The parents of an infant admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit have no choice but to trust the treatment and care their infant receives. Maternal vulnerability challenges the nurse’s awareness of the asymmetric distribution of power and ability to establish a trusting relationship with the mother. This is particularly important when mother and nurse do not share a verbal language. The nurses worked purposefully to gain trust. (shrink)

Cartwright (Synthese 121(1/2):3–27, 1999a; The dappled world, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1999b) attacked the view that causal relations conform to the Markov condition by providing a counterexample in which a common cause does not screen off its effects: the prominent chemical factory. In this paper we suggest a new way to handle counterexamples to Markov causation such as the chemical factory. We argue that Cartwright’s as well as similar scenarios feature a certain kind of non-causal dependence that kicks in once (...) the common cause occurs. We then develop a representation of this specific kind of non-causal dependence that allows for modeling the problematic scenarios in such a way that the Markov condition is not violated anymore. (shrink)

In her paper, “The Non-Governing Conception of Laws,” Helen Beebee argues that it is not a conceptual truth that laws of nature govern, and thus that one need not insist on a metaphysical account of laws that makes sense of their governing role. I agree with the first point but not the second. Although it is not a conceptual truth, the fact that laws govern follows straightforwardly from an important (though under-appreciated) principle of scientific theory choice combined with a highly (...) plausible claim about the connection between scientific theory choice and theory choice in metaphysics. I present and defend this argument and then show how the resulting understanding of governance gives rise to an especially strong version of recent explanatory circularity arguments against Humeanism about laws of nature. Finally, I present three options for a further understanding of the governance relation that are compatible with my argument. (shrink)

This article provides a critical view on the development and deployment phase of the e-ID in Belgium since 1999. It is based on extensive desk research and fifteen in depth-interviews with experts and stakeholders from government, administration, academia and industry who have been key in the development of the e-ID. The article identifies different elements that influenced, both in a positive and negative way, the societal, technical and political aspects of the Belgian e-ID. It shows that no severe problems occurred (...) during the initial deployment phase, which came to an end in 2009 providing over eight million Belgian citizens with an e-ID. The pre-existence of a National Register and the preliminary experiences with the exchange of digital information between administrative entities in the field of Social Security enabled and facilitated the development and the distribution of the e-ID. However, the research also reveals that usage of the e-ID by citizens and uptake of e-ID based services by administration and business remains limited due to multiple factors. The complex system of state structures in Belgium and as a consequence the dispersion of competences across different governmental entities makes that no unified approach to e-government and e-ID based services has been developed. From the industries’ point of view the privacy framework and the strictly regulated use of the National Registration Number provides no clear view on the allowed use of data accessible through the e-ID hampering take up in this area. (shrink)

Indigenous people (IP) have faced multiple difficulties in education. Indigenous students often do worse academically than non-indigenous student peers. These stated the low enrollment rates showed a dropout rate, absenteeism, repetition rates, literacy rate, and thus the educational outcomes, with retention and completion being two significant issues. Further, this study explores the lived experiences and challenges faced by indigenous high school students amidst the new normal education. Employing the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, the findings of this study were: (1) The reason (...) why IP learners were not satisfied with their performance is that they cannot understand some of the lessons due to the language barrier. (2) IP learners are committed to finishing their studies, however, some of the students lack resources for studying, like gadgets for researching, and they do not have cell phones. And the other students may have gadgets or cellphones, but their internet connection is low or not accessible in some places at their location. (shrink)