The bioethical principle of autonomy is problematic regarding the future of the embryo who lacks the ability to self-advocate but will develop this defining human capacity in time. Recent experiments explore the use of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats /Cas9 for germline engineering in the embryo, which alters future generations. The embryo’s inability to express an autonomous decision is an obvious bioethical challenge of germline engineering. The philosopher Joel Feinberg acknowledged that autonomy is developing in children. He advocated that (...) to reserve this future autonomy, parents should be guided to make ethical decisions that provide children with open futures. Here, Feinberg’s 1980 open future theory is extended to the human embryo in the context of CRISPR germline engineering. Although the embryo does not possess the autonomous decision-making capacity at the time of germline engineering, the parental decision to permanently change the unique genetic fabric of the embryo and subsequent generations disregards future autonomy. Therefore, germline engineering in many instances is objectionable considering Feinberg’s open future theory. (shrink)

This paper aims to show that dominant conceptions of intelligence used in artificial intelligence (AI) are biased by normative assumptions that originate from the Global North, making it questionable if AI can be uncritically applied elsewhere without risking serious harm to vulnerable people. After the introduction in Sect. 1 we shortly present the history of IQ testing in Sect. 2, focusing on its multiple discriminatory biases. To determine how these biases came into existence, we define intelligence ontologically and underline its (...) constructed and culturally variable character. Turning to AI, specifically the Turing Test (TT), in Sect. 3, we critically examine its underlying intelligence conceptions. The test has been of central influence in AI research and remains an important point of orientation. We argue that both the test itself and how it is used in practice risk promoting a limited conception of intelligence which solely originated in the Global North. Hence, this conception should be critically assessed in relation to the different global contexts in which AI technologies are and will be used. In Sect. 4, we highlight how unequal power relations in AI research are a real threat, rather than just philosophical sophistry while considering the history of IQ testing and the TT’s practical biases. In the last section, we examine the limits of our account and identify fields for further investigation. Tracing colonial continuities in AI intelligence research, this paper points to a more diverse and historically aware approach to the design, development, and use of AI. (shrink)

Controversy and activism have long been linked to the subject of primate research. Even in the midst of raging ethical debates surrounding fertility treatments, genetically modified foods and stem-cell research, there has been no reduction in the campaigns of activists worldwide. Plying their trade of intimidation aimed at ending biomedical experimentation in all animals, they have succeeded in creating an environment where research institutions, often painted as guilty until proven innocent, have avoided addressing the issue for fear of becoming targets. (...) One area of intense debate is the use of primates in stroke research. Despite the fact that stroke kills more people each year than AIDS and malaria, and less than 5% of patients are candidates for current therapies, there is significant opposition to primate stroke research. A balanced examination of the ethics of primate stroke research is thus of broad interest to all areas of biomedical research. (shrink)

Dans un contexte de crise du systeme capitaliste - une crise qui n'est sans doute qu'une etape de plus dans une fuite en avant qui dure depuis 30 ans, par laquelle ledit systeme tente desesperement de dissimuler la contradiction fondamentale qui l'habite (chercher a maintenir a tout prix la forme de la valeur alors meme que tout la denonce comme une forme fondamentalement depassee, perimee et anachronique de la richesse sociale) - ce livre part de notre impuissance pratique et de (...) l'impossibilite ou nous sommes actuellement de penser un autre monde. Et il rapporte cette impossibilite au fait de la privation de monde (et de la privatisation du monde) comme au fait majeur resultant du dispositif capitaliste. Ce dispositif a fait de nous ce que les philosophes modernes ont pense que nous etions: des sujets separes de l'objectivite, des sujets sans monde, retires du monde, spectateurs desinvoltes d'un monde qui n'est plus le leur. La perte du monde et la separation d'avec l'objectivite sont deux manieres d'exprimer un meme phenomene: celui de l'alienation. Ce dispositif a produit l'illusion du sujet souverain et la realite d'une masse d'individus depossedes de leur puissance. Au coeur de ce diagnostic, on trouvera une relecture de Marx, une tentative de mise en dialogue de Heidegger avec Marx et une confrontation critique avec des representants contemporains (Althusser, Deleuze, Foucault) ou actuels (J. Butler, S. Zizek, A. Honneth) de la critique sociale. La perspective est celle d'une objectivation des sujets qui en fasse des individus sociaux capables d'un usage commun de leur monde. (shrink)

Agent-based modeling has become a common and well-established tool in the social sciences and certain of the humanities. Here, we aim to provide an overview of the different modeling approaches in current use. Our discussion unfolds in two parts: we first classify different aspects of the model-building process and identify a number of characteristics shared by most agent-based models in the humanities and social sciences; then we map relevant differences between the various modeling approaches. We classify these into different dimensions (...) including the type of target systems addressed, the intended modeling goals, and the models’ degree of abstraction. Along the way, we provide reference to related debates in contemporary philosophy of science. (shrink)

Infinite time register machines (ITRMs) are register machines which act on natural numbers and which are allowed to run for arbitrarily many ordinal steps. Successor steps are determined by standard register machine commands. At limit times register contents are defined by appropriate limit operations. In this paper, we examine the ITRMs introduced by the third and fourth author (Koepke and Miller in Logic and Theory of Algorithms LNCS, pp. 306–315, 2008), where a register content at a limit time is set (...) to the lim inf of previous register contents if that limit is finite; otherwise the register is reset to 0. The theory of these machines has several similarities to the infinite time Turing machines (ITTMs) of Hamkins and Lewis. The machines can decide all ${\Pi^1_1}$ sets, yet are strictly weaker than ITTMs. As in the ITTM situation, we introduce a notion of ITRM-clockable ordinals corresponding to the running times of computations. These form a transitive initial segment of the ordinals. Furthermore we prove a Lost Melody theorem: there is a real r such that there is a program P that halts on the empty input for all oracle contents and outputs 1 iff the oracle number is r, but no program can decide for every natural number n whether or not ${n \in r}$ with the empty oracle. In an earlier paper, the third author considered another type of machines where registers were not reset at infinite lim inf’s and he called them infinite time register machines. Because the resetting machines correspond much better to ITTMs we hold that in future the resetting register machines should be called ITRMs. (shrink)

The study explores the use of Graphic Novels as an innovative form of training that may improve an individual’s ethical efficacy. A quantitative comparison of the graphic novel method and the traditional written case study is analyzed. The literature on ethics, graphic novels, and training are brought together from theories of narrative and literature perspective to formulate a study. The study uses a 2 × 2 repeated-measure MANOVA to analyze the participant’s reaction to bribery situations based on varying levels of (...) ‘grayness.’ The overall study finds that ethical efficacy increases with the use of the graphic novel method. The greatest improvements are in the individual’s level of self-efficacy and understanding of principle-based ethical issues. In addition, the participant’s level of industry experience may play a factor in applying the graphic novel technique. Finally, guidelines on how to effectively utilize the graphic novel method are stated. Improving ethical efficacy through business ethics training may help improve an individual’s self-efficacy, involvement and principle-based understanding. The study explores the use of Graphic Novels as an innovative form of training that may improve an individual’s ethical efficacy. A quantitative comparison of the graphic novel method and the traditional written case study are analyzed. Literature on ethics, graphic novels, and training are brought together with theories of narrative and literature perspective to formulate a study. The study uses a 2 × 2 repeated-measure MANOVA to analyze the participant’s reaction to bribery ethical situations based on varying levels of ‘grayness.’ The overall study finds that ethical efficacy increases with the use of the graphic novel method. The greatest improvements are in the individual’s level of self-efficacy and understanding of principle-based ethical issues. In addition, the participant’s level of industry experience may play a factor in applying the graphic novel technique. Finally, guidelines on how to effectively utilize the graphic novel method is set forth. (shrink)

English summary: The joint reading of Marx and Spinoza proposed here comes from their shared idea that men must be understood as parts of nature, so that any process that separates men from nature, that abstracts the subject form the objective world, or formalizes reason independently of its content is a fundamental result of alienation. Marx and Spinoza both saw that the processes of abstraction of the subject, and the subjectification of reason, meant to ensure the mastery of men over (...) nature and objectivity, would lead in fact to the impotence of the subject now dominated by that from which he sought to separate himself. French description: La lecture conjointe de Marx et de Spinoza que l'on tente ici se justifie de l'idee qu'est mise en oeuvre par l'un et l'autre une rationalite d'un type different de celui de la raison formelle, utilitaire et calculatrice portee et finalement realisee par la modernite occidentale. On se propose d'explorer - pour une critique de la raison abstraite et formelle - les ressources offertes par la these, partagee par les deux philosophes, selon laquelle les hommes doivent etre compris comme des parties de la nature (partes naturae, Teile der Natur): peut alors etre considere comme ressors fondamental de l'alienation tout procede theorique et tout dispositif pratique aboutissant a la separation des hommes et de la nature, a l'abstraction du sujet hors du monde objectif, a la formalisation de la raison independamment de ses contenus. Marx et Spinoza ont en commun d'avoir vu, en amont de toute Dialectique de la raison (et en ouvrant la voie qui y menait), que ces procedes et ces dispositifs d'abstraction du sujet et de subjectivation de la raison, instaures initialement en vue d'assurer la maitrise des hommes sur la nature et du sujet sur l'objectivite, devaient se renverser en leur contraire et finalement engendrer un sujet impuissant parce que domine par ce dont il s'est lui-meme separe. Cette nouvelle edition revue et corrigee est suivie en annexe d'un compte-rendu et d'une discussion des theses de Frederic Lordon dans Capitalisme, desir et servitude. Marx et Spinoza (2010). (shrink)

We propose that institutions consider establishing a position of “Ombudsman for Research Practice”. This person would assume several roles: as asounding board to those needing confidential consultation about research issues — basic, applied or clinical; as afacilitator for those wishing to pursue a formal grievance process; and as aneducator to distribute guidelines and standards, to raise the consciousness regarding sloppy or irregular practices in order to prevent misconduct and to promote the responsible conduct of research. While there are compelling features (...) to this position, many complex issues need to be considered and resolved. We invite readers to respond to questions we raise in the text. (shrink)

Les pages de Hegel consacrées à la lutte pour la reconnaissance sont certainement parmi les plus lues et les plus commentées, particulièrement en France où elles ont fourni à Kojève le point de départ d'une magistrale interprétation de la Phénoménologie de l'esprit. Pourquoi les relire une fois encore? Pour elles-mêmes d'abord, en les inscrivant, plus qu'on ne l'a fait jusqu'ici, dans le contexte général de l'idéalisme allemand de manière à clairement faire apparaître que la théorie de la reconnaissance est la (...) reprise par Hegel d'un problème largement élaboré avant lui, par Kant déjà, mais surtout par Fichte. Ensuite parce que les luttes pour la reconnaissance n'ont cessé de hanter notre modernité post-hégélienne et qu'un retour aux textes de Fichte et Hegel permet de comprendre que la lutte orientée vers la reconnaissance est, pour un individu ou pour un collectif, le moyen de construire les conditions intersubjectives d'un rapport positif à soi et aux autres dans la conquête d'une identité universelle et particulière à la fois. De plus, le travail étant, ainsi que le montre Hegel, un vecteur majeur de la reconnaissance, ce ne sont pas seulement les luttes culturelles, mais aussi les luttes sociales qui deviennent justiciables d'une approche relevant d'une théorie de la reconnaissance. Le thème de l'Anerkennung autorise ainsi une relecture de textes classiques qui ne coupe pas ceux-ci des enjeux de notre monde contemporain. (shrink)

A la source de ce livre il y a la conviction que certaines des evolutions les plus negatives des societes contemporaines conferent une actualite nouvelle au concept d'alienation selon la comprehension qu'en ont proposee des penseurs aussi apparemment eloignes l'un de l'autre que Marx et Heidegger: l'alienation comprise comme privation de monde. Nos societes mondialisees sont paradoxalement celles ou s'impose l'experience d'une privation de monde sans precedent. Plusieurs dimensions de cette privation sont analysees ici, notamment l'experience temporelle d'un present eternel, (...) l'epuisement de l'historicite et l'acceleration frenetique des maintenant successifs. Quant au lieu ou se joue originairement la privation de monde, Franck Fischbach soutient la these qu'il s'agit du travail dans la forme salariale qui est la sienne sous le capital et dont le caractere mutilant n'a cesse d'etre amplifie par les plus recentes evolutions. C'est donc aussi d'une transformation du travail que depend la possibilite d'un advenir historique de l'etre de l'homme dans le monde. (shrink)

Le présent article examine la question de l’existence d’un concept philosophique du social. Et cette question se pose à plus d’un titre : d’abord, parce qu’il semble que les philosophes aient toujours préféré – et préfèrent encore aujourd’hui – la catégorie du commun à celle du social ; ensuite, parce qu’il existe des sciences du social dont le moins qu’on puisse dire est qu’elles n’attendent pas grand-chose d’une éventuelle élaboration philosophique. Et pourtant, il existe bien un concept philosophique du social, (...) notamment élaboré par Hegel sous le nom d’éthicité ( Sittlichkeit ). Surtout, le propre d’une conception philosophique du social est de considérer le social de manière privilégiée sous l’angle de ce qu’il possède de proprement normatif. (shrink)

C'est un fait bien etabli maintenant que le titre commode d'idealisme allemand ne recouvre ni une unite monolithique de doctrines ni l'unite univoque d'un processus qui, passant par Fichte et Schelling, aurait trouve avec Hegel son seul accomplissement possible. Prenant pour fil conducteur la question de savoir comment doit commencer la philosophie et par quoi il faut commencer en philosophie, on tente ici une lecture comparee de Hegel et de Schelling avec l'ambition de rouvrir entre eux un dialogue rendant manifeste (...) que leur separation n'a pu avoir lieu que sur le fond de ce qui leur echut a tous deux egalement, a savoir la tache d'accomplir la philosophie comme science. La question du commencement philosophique est bien celle que seuls pouvaient veritablement poser ceux qui ont voulu conduire la philosophie a sa fin, a son accomplissement, c'est-a-dire Hegel et Schelling. (shrink)

This article reviews some of the definitions in circulation that reveal the varied perspectives and goals of the field of neuroethics. It discusses a brief taxonomy of neuroethical questions. It deals with two specific contentious issues, one clinical and one from social sciences and shows how neuroethicists can serve to inform and to protect. Neuroethicists need education that encompasses many domains. The study describes the academic grounding and qualifications that should be required and also considers the pivotal roles neuroethicists should (...) play. It contributes views that may help define the field of neuroethics and give structure and relevance to its activities. Finally, it concludes that neuroethicists are needed, now more than ever. (shrink)

A number of authors now invoke the opposition between political philosophy and social philosophy, whether to account for the specific nature of Marx’s relation to philosophy or to reactualize the project of a critical theory of society. What, the article asks, is the meaning of this distinction? Can it fulfill the requisite conditions that will enable philosophers to address in a pertinent manner the social and political challenges of our time? These are the questions addressed here by Catherine Colliot-Thélène, whose (...) fear is that the distinction in question may lose sight of the crucial question of power, and by Franck Fischbach, who emphasizes the materialist orientation of an approach that seeks to address the political from the perspective of the social. (shrink)

This paper explores the relationship between Adorno and Schelling. It argues that Adorno resorted to Schellingian motifs to counteract the influence of Hegelian thought. In defending this thesis, I examine the various stages in the development of Adorno’s thought, beginning with two texts from the 1930s and concluding with Negative Dialectics and ‘Skoteinos’. This allows us to see that Adorno’s concern to discover a way of thinking that is capable of doing justice to the ‘non-identical’ was present throughout his philosophical (...) career. (shrink)

Numerous studies have shown almost uniformly positive opinions among patients and physicians regarding theconceptof advance directives (either a healthcare proxy or living will). Several of these studies have also shown that the actual use of advance directives is significantly lower than this enthusiasm would suggest, but they have not explained the apparent discordance. Nor have researchers explained why members of minority groups are much less likely to complete advance directives than are white patients. In this study, we used a focus (...) group methodology to examine the ways in which diverse populations of patients view the medical, philosophical, and practical issues surrounding advance directives. We were motivated by the significantly lower prevalence of advance directives among African-American and Hispanic patients at one urban teaching hospital (18% for Caucasians, 4% for African-Americans, and 2% for Hispanics). Our premise was that African-American and Hispanic populations, who have had higher rates of morbidity and mortality across numerous disease categories, and historically have had limited access to care and opportunities to discuss health concerns, may be more suspicious about the right of autonomy that an advance directive is designed to ensure. (shrink)

Numerous studies have shown almost uniformly positive opinions among patients and physicians regarding theconceptof advance directives (either a healthcare proxy or living will). Several of these studies have also shown that the actual use of advance directives is significantly lower than this enthusiasm would suggest, but they have not explained the apparent discordance. Nor have researchers explained why members of minority groups are much less likely to complete advance directives than are white patients. In this study, we used a focus (...) group methodology to examine the ways in which diverse populations of patients view the medical, philosophical, and practical issues surrounding advance directives. We were motivated by the significantly lower prevalence of advance directives among African-American and Hispanic patients at one urban teaching hospital (18% for Caucasians, 4% for African-Americans, and 2% for Hispanics). Our premise was that African-American and Hispanic populations, who have had higher rates of morbidity and mortality across numerous disease categories, and historically have had limited access to care and opportunities to discuss health concerns, may be more suspicious about the right of autonomy that an advance directive is designed to ensure. (shrink)

Two paradoxes seem to characterise the method of the critique of ideology. The first has to do with the fact that ideologies are “both true and false” (Adorno). The second has to do with the fact that the critique of ideology seems to carry both a normative and a descriptive dimension. The article argues that these two paradoxes disappear when the critique of ideology is addressed by way of a Hegelian mode of immanent critique. Such an approach highlights both the (...) specific normative claim of the critique of ideology and the specific problematic which it exemplifies. (shrink)

Chacun sait que la critique sociale n'a pas son origine au cinema et qu'elle est nee quelque part du cote de chez Marx. Mais, dans une periode ou se multiplient des films comme It's a free world! (K. Loach), Louise Wimmer (C. Mennegun), Une vie meilleure (C. Kahn), Dans la tourmente (C. Ruggia) ou La mer a boire (J. Maillot), la question du rapport entre le cinema et la critique sociale retrouve une actualite qu'elle n'a plus eue depuis les annees (...) 70. Dans ce contexte, Franck Fischbach montre que la critique sociale n'est ni un genre, ni un style cinematographique, mais une fonction que certains films mettent en oeuvre parmi d'autres fonctions et quel que soit leur genre d'appartenance. Mais comment situer alors la fonction de critique sociale par rapport au genre du cinema politique? Et quels sont les instruments et les dispositifs proprement filmiques d'une critique sociale cinematographique? (shrink)

Dans sa signification la plus générale, la théorie critique est un type de théorie qui considère les concepts avec lesquels on analyse les rapports sociaux comme constitués par ces rapports eux-mêmes. Dans un texte devenu classique, « Théorie traditionnelle et théorie critique », Max Horkheimer soutient que, tandis que la théorie traditionnelle reste indifférente à l’égard de son rôle dans la société, la théorie critique quant à elle prend en compte la manière dont les rapports sociaux influe...

ABSTRACT This article aims to compare the national legal systems that regulate biomedical research in an industrialized country (United States) and a developing country (Venezuela). A new international order is emerging in which Europe, Japan and the United States (US) are revising common guidelines and harmonizing standards. In this article, we analyze – as an example – the US system. This system is controlled by a federal agency structured to regulate research funded by the federal government uniformly, either in the (...) US or abroad. In contrast, in Venezuela, a developing country, the creation of a centralized system is a slow process. Different types of ethical committees review research projects using non‐uniform criteria. Consequently, various parallel organizations that conduct biomedical research, such as universities, research institutes and private hospitals have diverse regulations operating at a local level. Thus, the most relevant difference between the Venezuelan and the US systems is the degree of standardization. In the US, the review process is performed by institutional review boards (IRBs), which have a similar organization and maintain relationships with a centralized agency, following standard regulations. Although new proposals for establishing national regulations are currently being considered in Venezuela, the success of these initiatives will depend on promoting governmental efforts to create a more structured centralized system supported by a national regulatory framework. This system will need governmental financial support at all levels. This article proposes an integrated system to regulate research with human participants in Venezuela and other developing countries. (shrink)

Cet article tente de fonder la thèse selon laquelle l’ontologie de Marx serait plutôt une ontologie spinoziste qu’une ontologie hégélienne. Mais cela exige de relire de près quelques-uns des textes dans lesquels Marx use de l’une des catégories majeures de la dialectique hégélienne: la catégorie de contradiction.

[Axel Honneth and the return to the roots of critical theory: Recognition as „otherness of justice“; ].

The concept of alienation, as put forward in the 1844 Manuscripts, is a particularly complex one. Marx tentatively outlines a conception of alienation that is proper to him, that is not merely the transfer of the Feuerbachian conception from the religious sphere to social and economic life. Marx's innovation is to have gone beyond a conception in which alienation is regarded as the loss of a subjective content in the object, or as the experience of the loss of the object (...) that is intrinsically alienating, insofar as the worker is deemed to have invested his subjectivity in the object that has been produced. Marx thus puts forward the idea that objectification is not in itself alienating. This is the case with work, an activity that is naturally objectifying, or with a being that is itself natural and objective, such as the worker. What is alienating, for an objective being (and not for a “subject”), is the suppression of the objectivity that is proper to it : that is, the negation of its naturalness, and of the originally passive and "affected", acted upon, dimension of its being. (shrink)

Cet article explore la possibilité de contrer dans la théorie et dans la pratique le mouvement qui a conduit au triomphe des thèses néolibérales, à savoir le mouvement d’abstraction de la science économique hors du domaine des sciences sociales, et les conséquences de ce mouvement : la critique du concept même de social, la promotion systématique, dans la théorie, de points de vue désocialisés et strictement individualistes et, dans la pratique, des principes de concurrence dite libre. C’est contre cela que (...) l’on propose ici d’ouvrir la voie d’une resocialisation de l’économie. (shrink)

Franck Fischbach | : Le concept de réflexion joue un rôle clé dans la constitution de la théorie critique dès les premiers textes de Horkheimer dans les années 30. Mais la théorie critique n’a pas le monopole de la réflexion et la théorie traditionnelle la met également en oeuvre : c’est donc qu’il y a une spécificité de la réflexion engagée par la théorie critique. Au fil d’une enquête qui va de Horkheimer à Habermas, le présent article tente de localiser (...) cette spécificité dans la particularité d’une expérience qui conduit à la réflexion, à l’adoption de l’attitude critique et ouvre l’horizon de l’émancipation. | : The concept of reflection plays an important part in the critical theory right from the beginning of the Frankfurter School in Horkheimer’s texts during the 30s. However, the critical theory doesn’t have a monopoly on reflection and the traditional theory resorts also to it. Therefore, the critical use of the reflection must have a specificity that the present article aims at bringing to light. Following a path from Horkheimer to Habermas, this article tries to set this specificity in an individual and collective experience that can lead to reflection, to the adoption of the critical attitude and opens the perspective of emancipation. (shrink)

With the rapid growth of native advertising, there has been an increased interest to address ethical concerns and deception online. To address this concern, we look at the consumer's ethical efficacy toward native ads and we compare native ads to banner ads. Results confirm that consumers trust native ads more than banner ads. Moreover, we uncover that consumers ethical efficacy affects their intention to share native ads through eWOM. However, consumer individual differences influence intention to share content online and trust (...) in the native ads. We study the moderating effects of salience, using the fashion context, and its influence on ad trust and willingness to share through eWOM. Recommendations for business professionals and academics are discussed and future research guidelines are addressed. (shrink)

Nous partirons du constat de la discrétion des thèmes de la ville et de la vie urbaine dans l’histoire de la Théorie critique : c’est un fait que, mises à part les analyses inspirées à Benjamin par sa lecture et son interprétation de l’œuvre de Baudelaire, il est très difficile de trouver une prise en compte explicite de la ville dans les écrits des principaux représentants de la Théorie critique de la société, toutes générations confondues, qu’il s’agisse de Horkheimer et (...) Adorno ou de Habermas et Honneth. Nous essaierons d’une part de comprendre les raisons de cette discrétion (pour ne pas dire plus) du thème de la ville dans la Théorie critique, et d’autre part de voir quels aménagements il faudrait faire subir à la Théorie critique pour qu’elle soit capable de mieux prendre en considération la ville : en particulier, éviter de dissoudre la dimension de la vie urbaine dans les domaines trop larges de la critique de la modernité, de la marchandise et du capitalisme. Nous verrons enfin dans quelle mesure les développements plus récents de la Théorie critique autour des thèmes de « l’accélération », de la « résonance » (chez Hartmut Rosa) ou de la « privation de monde » semblent prometteurs d’une meilleure prise en charge de la ville par la Théorie critique. (shrink)

Na podlagi Deweyjevega razlikovanja med »zgolj združbenim obnašanjem« in »resnično družbenim obnašanjem« skuša članek pokazati, da lahko delo razumemo kot tisti dejavnik, ki omogoča prehod od prvega do drugega, tj. do skupnosti delovanja oziroma do sodelovanja. Izpeljava izpostavi demokratične zmožnosti, ki so lastne delu, in nazadnje privede do možnosti, da bi delovno okolje obravnavali kot demokratično javno mesto, ki bi lahko utemeljevalo vse druge prostore te vrste.