Book reviewed in this article: The Needs of Strangers. By Michael Ignatieff. The Health Economy. By Victor Fuchs. Just Health Care. By Norman Daniels.

Objectives:Social isolation is increasing in aging societies and several studies have shown a relation with worse cognition in old age. However, less is known about the association in the oldest-old (85+); the group that is at highest risk for both social isolation and dementia. Methods:Analyses were based on follow-up 5 to 9 of the longitudinal German study on aging, cognition, and dementia in primary care patients (AgeCoDe) and the study on needs, health service use, costs, and health-related quality of life (...) in a large sample of oldest-old primary care patients (AgeQualiDe), a multi-center population-based prospective cohort study. Measurements included the Lubben Social Network Scale (LSNS-6), with a score below 12 indicating social isolation, as well as the Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE) as an indicator of cognitive function. Results:Dementia-free study participants (n = 942) were M = 86.4 (SD = 3.0) years old at observation onset, 68.2% were women. One third (32.3%) of them were socially isolated. Adjusted linear hybrid mixed effects models revealed significantly lower cognitive function in individuals with smaller social networks (β = 0.5, 95% CI = 0.3-0.7, p <.001). Moreover, changes in an individual's social network size were significantly associated with cognitive changes over time (β = 0.2, 95% CI = 0.1-0.4, p =.003), indicating worse cognitive function with shrinking social networks. Conclusion:Social isolation is highly prevalent among oldest-old individuals, being a risk factor for decreases in cognitive function. Consequently, it is important to maintain a socially active lifestyle into very old age. Likewise, this calls for effective ways to prevent social isolation. (shrink)

Background: Informed consent is a legal as well as ethical prerequisite in clinical research. For dementia research, informed consent can be a problem if subjects with dementia, whose capacity for understanding and thus also decision making might be limited, are to be exam- ined. This might result in exclusion of dementia patients from research, as capacity for understanding and decision making are often equated with the ability for rational decision making. However, this valuation has been criticized at times for attaching (...) too much impor- tance to the cognitive aspect of decision making. -/- Methods: This qualitative study investigates the actual consent procedure of a clini- cal research study in Germany with regard to dementia patients’ subjective and objective understanding of informed consent information. Research participants were ten dementia patients, who volunteered in two clinical research studies, as well as their caregivers. Data were collected by use of semi-structured interviews. -/- Results: It was determined that the patients’ comprehension of informed consent infor- mation was rather limited. However, a number of patients were quite aware of this. In con- trast, all caregivers claimed to have fully understood the provided information, while their objective comprehension was also incomplete. Several participants indicated that they did not attach much importance to the information given in the consent procedure and that their consent did not primarily depend on this information. Rather, participation in the research study for them seemed to be more of a problem-focused coping strategy for dealing with their diagnosis of dementia. -/- Conclusion: For research ethics these results raise the question whether the currently prevailing emphasis on the cognitive aspect of autonomous decision making, i.e., compre- hension, may be too one-sided, and to what extent the “volitional” aspect in giving consent should be given greater consideration. (shrink)

Mit den Fortschritten im Bereich der psychiatrisch-genetischen Forschung gehen auch intensive Diskussionen bezüglich der daraus erwachsenden Implikationen einher. Hoffnungen wie Befürchtungen gegenüber der neuen Technologie und deren Folgen werden gleichermaßen zum Ausdruck gebracht. Über die Einstellung der Bevölkerung und insbesondere der Patienten mit affektiven oder schizophrenen Erkrankungen und ihrer Angehörigen in Deutschland war bisher allerdings wenig bekannt. Daher führten wir im Rahmen des Deutschen Humangenomprojektes erstmals eine Studie durch, um die Einstellungen und ihre beeinflussenden Faktoren zu erfassen. Wir entwickelten einen (...) Fragebogen zur Erfassung der Erwartungen, Hoffnungen und Befürchtungen sowie der die Einstellung beeinflussenden Faktoren. Hiermit wurde eine repräsentative Stichprobe von 3077 Personen aus der Allgemeinbevölkerung am Telefon befragt. Weiterhin wurden mit 316 Patienten und 163 Angehörigen persönliche standardisierte Interviews anhand des Fragebogens durchgeführt. Die Mehrzahl der Befragten hatte eine positive Einstellung zu psychiatrisch-genetischer Forschung, äußerte jedoch gleichzeitig ethische Bedenken. Übereinstimmend waren die Befragten der Ansicht, dass Informationen aus genetischen Untersuchungen vertraulich behandelt werden sollten. Kleine, aber signifikante Unterschiede zwischen den Gruppen zeigten sich bezüglich der Einstellung zu präsymptomatischer genetischer Diagnostik. Unsere Ergebnisse weisen auf eine Ambivalenz der Befragten gegenüber der psychiatrisch-genetischen Forschung und Untersuchung hin: Neben einer überwiegend positiven Einstellung wurden auch moralische Bedenken geäußert. (shrink)

Ein Topos in institutionellen Stellungnahmen zu „Genome Editing am Menschen“ ist die Forderung nach einem Moratorium. Dieses soll einerseits dazu dienen, zu einer angemessenen Risikoabklärung zu gelangen, und andererseits einer gesellschaftlichen und ethischen Diskussion hinreichend Raum zu geben, um zu entscheiden, ob die vom Moratorium betroffenen Eingriffe überhaupt grundsätzlich erwünscht sind. Dabei scheint das Moratorium eine kompromisshafte Lösung zu sein, auf die sich die Mitglieder in weltanschaulich pluralen Ethikgremien verständigen können. Die Analyse der zu Genome Editing in den Jahren 2015 (...) bis 2018 verfassten Stellungnahmen zeigt jedoch ein deutlich komplexeres Bild: Was als konsensuale Kompromissformel erscheint, stellt sich als vielfach konflikthaftes Lösungsmodell dar. Umstritten ist in den unterschiedlichen Moratoriumsmodellen der Umfang (was alles ist vom Moratorium betroffen?), die Dauer (gibt es ein konkretes Datum, bis zu dem das Moratorium gilt?), der Zweck (dient es bloß der Risikoabschätzung oder auch der ethischen und/oder gesamtgesellschaftlichen Diskussion?) und die Frage, was für eine Maßnahme am Ende des Moratoriums getroffen werden soll. Zudem ist zwischen impliziten und expliziten Moratorien zu unterscheiden und zu untersuchen, was mit dem Moratoriumsvorschlag jeweils nicht verursacht werden soll (zum Beispiel die Grundlagenforschung einschränken). Am Ende der ethischen Analyse zeigt sich, dass mit klarer bestimmten Moratoriumsforderungen ein stärkeres Bewusstsein des Aufschub-Charakters dieser spezifischen Empfehlung einhergeht. So lässt sich auch das Ethos der Verantwortlichkeit – gegenüber jetzt Lebenden sowie künftigen Generationen – besser realisieren. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Jahrbuch für Wissenschaft und Ethik Jahrgang: 18 Heft: 1 Seiten: 125-132.

Given the technical feasibility, not only scientists but also moral philosophers approve of an intervention in the genetic basis of our intellectual dispositions. Among the features not related to illnesses, intelligence seems to be an especially promising candidate for genetic enhancement, for intelligence is valued in every culture. The paper presents some of the arguments for and against genetic enhancement of intelligence. The author analyses what kind of good increased intelligence is: an instrumental good for the wellbeing of mankind, a (...) positional good for a given society or an individual, or something that is appreciated by the individual subject because of the positive experience the subject has by making use of it. Since such experiences are not bad in themselves the means of genetic enhancement have to be assessed and compared with accepted practices like education. The author comes to the conclusion that there are morally significant differences between genetic enhancement and accepted practices to enhance intelligence. (shrink)

In den öffentlichen Debatten spielen das Alter und das Altern zunehmend wichtige Rollen. Der demographische Wandel, die alternde Gesellschaft und die daraus resultierenden Probleme und Fragen bedingen es, dass sich mit dem Thema nahezu alle akademischen Disziplinen befassen. Soll man in den Alterungsprozess eingreifen? Wie ist das Altern aufzufassen? Als Krankheit, die man „heilen“ kann oder als natürlichen Prozess, den man nicht beeinflussen sollte? Das Handbuch blickt aus einer weiten Perspektive auf die Lebensphase des höheren Alters wie auf das biologische (...) und soziale Phänomen des Alterns. Erträge der Gerontologie und der Biogerontologie wie auch der Geriatrie werden gebündelt und um eine anthropologische, kulturwissenschaftliche und kulturphilosophische sowie eine moralphilosophische und ethische Hinsicht erweitert. (shrink)

Essays in Memory of Richard Helgerson: Laureations brings together new essays by leading literary scholars of the British and European middle ages and early modern period who have been influenced by the groundbreaking scholarship of Richard Helgerson. The contributors evince the ongoing impact of Helgerson's work in critical debates including those of nationalism, formal analysis, and literary careerism.

Das Wiskott-Aldrich-Syndrom (WAS), ein genetisch bedingter Immundefekt mit klinischer Manifestation im Kleinkindalter, wird voraussichtlich in näherer Zukunft erstmals versuchsweise durch eine somatische Gentherapie behandelt werden. Im vor- liegenden Beitrag werden die wichtigsten medizinisch-naturwissenschaftlichen Fakten dieses Krankheitsbildes sowie die bisherigen Erfahrungen mit somatischen Gentherapien bei anderen Immunmangelsyndromen ausführlich dargestellt. Sodann erfolgt eine ethische Analyse eines möglichen gentherapeutischen Eingriffs bei WAS-Patienten, bei der die spezifischen Aspekte des Wiskott-Aldrich-Syndroms – insbesondere die fast ausschließliche Betroffenheit von Kindern sowie die unterschiedlich aussichtsreiche Alter- nativoption einer (...) allogenen Knochenmarktransplantation–wesentliche Aspekte der Beurteilung sind. Im Ergebnis zeigt sich, dass ein gentherapeutischer Eingriff im vorliegenden Fall nicht im Rahmen einer Forschungsstudie, d.h. als Humanexperiment, gerechtfertigt werden kann, sondern allein als individueller Heilversuch. Gleichwohl las- sen die besonderen Risiken und die Innovativität eines solchen Eingriffs es notwendig erscheinen, diesen Heilversuch – anders als andere Heilbehandlungen mit bislang unerprobten Mitteln – in streng kontrollierter Form durchzuführen. Der neuartige Gedanke eines kontrollierten individuellen Heilversuchs zeichnet sich daher für den vorliegenden Fall, und womöglich auch für vergleichbare risikoreiche Behandlungsansätze namentlich im Bereich der Gentherapie, als geeignetes Instrument der Konzeption und Beurteilung ab. (shrink)

Widowhood is common in old age, can be accompanied by serious health consequences and is often linked to substantial changes in social network. Little is known about the impact of social isolation on the development of depressive symptoms over time taking widowhood into account. We provide results from the follow-up 5 to follow-up 9 from the longitudinal study AgeCoDe and its follow-up study AgeQualiDe. Depression was measured with GDS-15 and social isolation was assessed using the Lubben Social Network Scale (LSNS-6). (...) The group was aligned of married and widowed people in old age and education through entropy balancing. Linear mixed models were used to examine the frequency of occurrence of depressive symptoms for widowed and married elderly people depending on the risk of social isolation. Our study shows that widowhood alone does not lead to an increased occurrence of depressive symptoms. However, "widowed oldest old", who are also at risk of social isolation, have significantly more depressive symptoms than those without risk. In the group of "married oldest old", women have significantly more depressive symptoms than men, but isolated and non-isolated do not differ. Especially for people who have lost a spouse, the social network changes significantly and increases the risk for social isolation. This represents a risk factor for the occurrence of depressive symptoms. (shrink)

In recent years, a number of theorists have developed approaches to social cognition that highlight the centrality of social interaction as opposed to mindreading (e.g. Gallagher and Zahavi 2008 ; Gallagher 2001 , 2007 , 2008 ; Hobson 2002 ; Reddy 2008 ; Hutto 2004 ; De Jaegher 2009 ; De Jaegher and Di Paolo 2007 ; Fuchs and De Jaegher 2009 ; De Jaegher et al. 2010 ). There are important differences among these approaches, as I will discuss, (...) but they are united by their commitment to the claim that various embodied and extended processes sustain social understanding and interaction in the absence of mindreading and thus make mindreading superfluous. In this paper, I consider various ways of articulating and defending this claim. I will argue that the options that have been offered either fail to present an alternative to mindreading or commit one to a radical enactivist position that I will give reasons for being skeptical about. I will then present an alternative and moderate version of interactionism, according to which the embodied and extended processes that interactionists emphasize actually complement mindreading and may even contribute as an input to mindreading. (shrink)

In recent years, a number of approaches to social cognition research have emerged that highlight the importance of embodied interaction for social cognition (Reddy, How infants know minds, 2008; Gallagher, J Conscious Stud 8:83–108, 2001; Fuchs and Jaegher, Phenom Cogn Sci 8:465–486, 2009; Hutto, in Seemans (ed.) Joint attention: new developments in psychology, philosophy of mind and social neuroscience, 2012). Proponents of such ‘interactionist’ approaches emphasize the importance of embodied responses that are engaged in online social interaction, and which, (...) according to interactionists, present an alternative to mindreading as a source of social understanding. We agree that it is important to take embodied interaction seriously, but do not agree that this presents a fundamental challenge to mainstream mindreading approaches. Drawing upon an analogy between embodied interaction and the exercise of expert skills, we advocate a hierarchical view which claims that embodied social responses generally operate in close conjunction with higher-level cognitive processes that play a coordinative role, and which are often sensitive to mental states. Thus, investigation of embodied responses should inform rather than conflict with research on mindreading. (shrink)

Vorwort der Herausgeber mit Schriftenverzeichnis Albert Mues - H. SEubert: Transzendentalphilosophie und Metaphysik heute. EIne Skizze - M. SCherbaum: Philosophie als Lebensform - oder: Die Krise des Nihilismus und die Validitat transzendentaler Argumentation. SYstematische Reflexionen zu Letztbegrundung, Grenze und Bedeutung von Philosophie - M. GErten: Der Charakter der Transzendentalphilosophie als fundamentaler Geltungsreflexion. HIstorische und systematische uberlegungen mit besonderem Blick auf den spaten Fichte - L. MOckl: Zur logischen Position der Hypothese - I. RAdrizzani: Die Zeitfiguration in der Transzendentalphilosophie. REinhard Lauths (...) Appositionslehre als Aktualisierung von Fichtes Zeitmodell - K. POllok: Kants Begriff der Normativitat im Kontext der fruhneuzeitlichen Philosophie - C. LOtz: Gewissen und Widerstand - M. FUchs: "Freiheit, die sich Dasein gibt". INdividuum und Staat bei Platon und Hegel - B. DIeckmann: Reich der Freiheit und Kreuzestheologie. OPfer bei Johann Gottlieb Fichte - W. KLausnitzer: Christentum versus Islam. uBerlegungen zum Thema der Gewalt in beiden Religionen - M. FAmula: Zwischen Grenzenlosigkeit und Ausgrenzung. LIebe als Kultivierungsprozess in Adalbert Stifters Brigitta. (shrink)

This article examines various positions within science studies on scientific hegemony. After discussing the work of Stephan Fuchs and the “ epistemological chicken” debate, it proceeds to take issue with the claim that science is both locally accomplished and hegemonic. It offers the suggestion that critical accounts would better reconsider the ethos of their audience rather than simply worry about the objectivism of their own representations of science.

Was in Theorien an Auflösungsvermögen verkraftet werden kann und muß, findet in der Welt, die durch Theorie rekonstruiert werden soll, eine Parallele: Was der Mensch sei, ist nicht einmal menschen- und lebensweltlich eine klare Kante. In den Humankatastrophen der letzten hundert Jahre wird er zu einer verfeuerungsfähigen Biomasse. Man kann kaum den Eindruck gewinnen, daß sich daran etwas wirklich geändert hat. Es wird Tag für Tag hekatombenweise gestorben, gemordet, gefoltert. Der Mensch wird definiert als das Wesen, das man töten kann (...) durch Hunger, Krankheit, Folter, Mord und Krieg, namenlos, zahllos, heute hier, morgen dort. Man könnte sich denken, daß die Lehre vom Menschen, die Anthropologie, ihren Grund verliert und eigentlich zur Thanatologie konvertieren müßte. Und dank Gentechnologie erscheint am Horizont die Vision, der Mensch sei nicht mehr jemand, der nach dem Bilde eines Gottes geformt sei, sondern nunmehr jemand, der in den Stand versetzt wurde, sich ein machbares Bild von sich selber zu schaffen, die Exemplare der humanen Population so zu formatieren, daß sie dem alten Ideal der Kalokagathia entsprechen: tugendhaft, schön, alters- und behinderungslos, krankheits-, rausch- und drogenfrei, angemessenen Verstandes eine Idee der Devianzausmerzung, könnte man sagen, die Idee einer leid- und schicksalsfreien Ruhewelt, einer Re-Animation des Paradiesgedankens ohne Adam und ohne Eva. (shrink)

Jürgen Habermas vertritt die These, dass sich das Konsensprinzip des kommunikativen Handelns in den Meinungs- und Willensbildungsprozess der Politik übertragen lasse. In der vorliegenden grundlegenden Kritik zeigt die Autorin, dass diese These nicht haltbar ist. Anders als Habermas annimmt, findet kommunikatives Handeln keinen Eingang in die Prozeduralität der Politik. Das politische Handeln wird vielmehr durch systemische Vorgaben bestimmt. Diese ergeben sich im Wesentlichen aus der Prozeduralität des ökonomischen Systems sowie aus der über Macht bestimmten Prozeduralität des politischen Systems selbst.

While linear time results from the measurement of physical events, the temporality of life is characterized by cyclical processes, which also manifest themselves in subjective bodily experience. This applies for the periodicity of heartbeat, respiration, sleep-wake cycle, or circadian hormone secretion, among others. The central integration of rhythmic bodily signals in the brain forms the biological foundation of the phenomenal sense of temporal continuity. Cyclical repetitions are also found in the recurring phases of need, drive, and satisfaction. Finally, the cyclical (...) structure of bodily time manifests itself at an extended level in the form of implicit or body memory. However, this cyclical structure of lived time comes into tension with the orders of linear time which have been increasingly established in Western societies since the modern age. This tension creates both individual as well as societal conflicts and may also result in psychopathological phenomena. As an example, depression and burn-out syndromes will be discussed. (shrink)

D'où vient cette réalité historique particulière qu'est la morale protestante? C'est pour répondre à cette question que les deux premières parties de ce livre sont consacrées à une présentation des sources de l'éthique protestante, celles de la Réforme du 16e siècle (Luther et Calvin), et celles du puritanisme anglais. On découvrira à ce propos le lien étroit du protestantisme et de la modernité, pour le meilleur (démocratie) et pour le pire (utilistarisme). Dès lors, la question de l'avenir d'un tel lien (...) se pose et deux enjeux prioritaires sont ici mis en évidence : comment, dans une société sécularisée, faire valoir l'importance et la valeur d'une morale de conviction théologique? Comment, face à des phénomènes de retour régressif d'une religiosité irrationnelle, maintenir l'exigence d'une relation positive entre foi et raison, sagesse éthique et intelligences? Comment rester à la fois solidaire et critique de notre culture? Enfin l'auteur propose trois engagements spécifiques par quoi le protestantisme pourra prendre utilement sa part au débat contemporain sur la morale nécessaire à notre société actuelle. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology 12.3 (2005) 195-198 [Access article in PDF] Implicit and Explicit Temporality Thomas Fuchs Keywords implicit/explicit temporality, embodiment, intersubjectivity, desynchronization, melancholia, schizophrenia Since Minkowski (1970), Strauss (1966), v. Gebsattel (1954), and Tellenbach (1980), temporality has been a main subject of phenomenological psychiatry. Drawing on philosophical concepts of Bergson, Husserl, and Heidegger, these authors have analyzed psychopathologic deviations of time experience, mainly from an individual point (...) of view, for example, as a slowing down or inhibition of lived time in depression or obsessive–compulsive disorder. Their analyses are still most valuable today, but may be carried further by introducing concepts such as embodied and intersubjective temporality into psychopathology. Martin Wyllie (2005), by opening up a wide scope of temporal phenomena and related concepts, makes a laudable effort to contribute to such a progress.In my commentary, I would like to propose a distinction that is suggested by much of Wyllie's analysis and may shed further light on psychopathology, namely between implicit and explicit temporality. If we look at a child while obliviously playing with his toys, lost to the world, we may assume that there is no sense of the time passing. Lived time runs with the movement of life, implicit in the child's experience of being engaged in his play and directed toward his goals. It "unfolds through the processes of bodily activity" (Wyllie 2005). Future and past do not stand out against the pure presence of "becoming." This implicit mode of temporality is retrieved every time that we are absorbed in what we are doing, and may even reach the climax of "flow experiences" (Csikszentmihalyi 1988) where the sense of time is lost in unimpeded, fluent performance.However, this changes when a gap arises between need and satisfaction, desire and fulfillment, or plan and execution. Now the future appears as a "not yet" or "yet to come," experienced as the temporality of awaiting, striving, or longing for. Time is felt as passing by and refusing the desired fulfillment; it becomes conscious or explicit. A similar gap arises between the present and something irretrievably lost, bringing the past to consciousness as a "no more." Again time is experienced explicitly, but now as moving on relentlessly and separating us from the lost object. The gap to the past may not be bridged any more: this is the temporality of missing or mourning. In both cases, explicit time arises as a negation of implicit or lived time (here my use of the term is a bit divergent from Wyllie's); it is experienced as a "not yet" or "no more," often with a component of displeasure or suffering (Fuchs 2001a, 2003)."Implicit" versus "explicit time" thus come near to another distinction well known in phenomenology, namely between the "lived" and [End Page 195] the "corporal body" (Leib versus Koerper). The first term refers to the body functioning in the tacit mode, as the medium of everyday performance. The second term points to the body as turning into the object of attention, for example, when it puts up resistance to our purposes, or is used as an instrument deliberately (Fuchs 2001b). In fact, implicit temporality and tacit performance of the body are nearly synonymous: Lived time may be regarded as a function of the lived body, opened up by its potentiality and capability. The more we are engaged in our tasks, the more we forget time as well as the body; we are, as it were, "inside time." On the other hand, in explicit temporality the body often appears in the corporal or explicit mode as well. For example, when falling ill, we experience our body no more as a tacit medium but rather as an object or obstacle, while we notice the slowing down of time and may even feel excluded from the movement of life. Thus, embodiment and temporality have a parallel background–foreground structure.I now try to carry these considerations further by including the intersubjective dimension of time. In an earlier paper, I describe the attunement of the living being to its environment as a continuous synchronization on the biological as... (shrink)

According to QBism, quantum states, unitary evolutions, and measurement operators are all understood as personal judgments of the agent using the formalism. Meanwhile, quantum measurement outcomes are understood as the personal experiences of the same agent. Wigner’s conundrum of the friend, in which two agents ostensibly have different accounts of whether or not there is a measurement outcome, thus poses no paradox for QBism. Indeed the resolution of Wigner’s original thought experiment was central to the development of QBist thinking. The (...) focus of this paper concerns two very instructive modifications to Wigner’s puzzle: One, a recent no-go theorem by Frauchiger and Renner, and the other a thought experiment by Baumann and Brukner. We show that the paradoxical features emphasized in these works disappear once both friend and Wigner are understood as agents on an equal footing with regard to their individual uses of quantum theory. Wigner’s action on his friend then becomes, from the friend’s perspective, an action the friend takes on Wigner. Our analysis rests on a kind of quantum Copernican principle: When two agents take actions on each other, each agent has a dual role as a physical system for the other agent. No user of quantum theory is more privileged than any other. In contrast to the sentiment of Wigner’s original paper, neither agent should be considered as in “suspended animation.” In this light, QBism brings an entirely new perspective to understanding Wigner’s friend thought experiments. (shrink)

Morals from Motives develops a virtue ethics inspired more by Hume and Hutcheson's moral sentimentalism than by recently-influential Aristotelianism. It argues that a reconfigured and expanded "morality of caring" can offer a general account of right and wrong action as well as social justice. Expanding the frontiers of ethics, it goes on to show how a motive-based "pure" virtue theory can also help us to understand the nature of human well-being and practical reason.

In an age of growing virtual communication the question arises what role the human capacity of empathy plays in virtual relations. May empathy be detached from the immediate, embodied contact with others and be transferred to such relations? In order to answer this question, the paper distinguishes between primary, intercorporeal empathy and extended empathy which is based on the imaginative representation of the other, and fictional empathy which is directed to imagined or completely fictitious persons. The latter is characterized by (...) an 'as-if-consciousness' that maintains the difference between fiction and reality despite the empathy that one feels for the fictitious person. Based on these analyses, the paper further investigates the impact of the growing virtualization in postmodern culture. This is captured by the notions of phantomization as a media-based simulation of direct reality which undermines the as-if-consciousness, and disembodied communication which shifts the modes of empathy towards the fictional pole at the risk of merely projecting one's own feelings onto the other. In sum, human empathy is not bound to immediate intercorporeal contact, but becomes a crucial medium of virtual relations as well, albeit at the risk of projecting fictional emotions. (shrink)

Can events that take place after an individual’s death affect that person’s weIl-being? Aristotle apparently thought that they could, but Mark Overvold disagrees. Like other contemporary moral theorists, Overvold analyzes the notion of a person’s utility or welfare in terms of the fulfillment of the individual’s desires, but he adds the important qualification that the desites must be for states-of-affairs in which the agent is an essential constituent. The clear implication of such a view is that our welfare cannot be (...) affected by the post-mortem satisfaction of any of the interests which we had while alive.I shall defend Overvold against his critics who insist that at least some posthumous satisfactions can contribute to a person’s welfare. I shall also argue against Brad Hooker’s proposal that we revise Overvold’s theory in order to account for such cases. (shrink)