The article explores the possibilities of using civic republicanism in order to criticize Nozickian libertarianism on the ground of its own premises, especially the emphasis it puts on individual freedom. It evaluates the critique to which Nozick’s theory has been subjected to by Ian Shapiro, finding Shapiro’s objections lacking in understanding, yet valid in principle. The second line of attack is then led via the notion of freedom as non-domination (which inextricably intertwines it with democracy) and via the needs which (...) must be satisfied in order for a state to function as a safeguard for liberty in the contemporary world of multinational corporations. (shrink)

Článek kritizuje Popperovu projekci moderních ideálů (liberalismu, rovnostářství, humanismu) do antiky. Nesnaží se hájit Platóna ani výrazněji rozporovat Popperovy normativní závěry, pouze ukazuje, že Otevřená společnost a její nepřátelé silně idealizuje athénské demokraty a představitele tzv. „velké generace“. Pozornost je věnována především starořeckému pojetí rovnosti a skupinové příslušnosti, dále také způsobům legitimizace moci, jež existovaly v pátém století př. n. l.

Článek kritizuje Popperovu projekci moderních ideálů (liberalismu, rovnostářství, humanismu) do antiky. Nesnaží se hájit Platóna ani výrazněji rozporovat Popperovy normativní závěry, pouze ukazuje, že Otevřená společnost a její nepřátelé silně idealizuje athénské demokraty a představitele tzv. „velké generace“. Pozornost je věnována především starořeckému pojetí rovnosti a skupinové příslušnosti, dále také způsobům legitimizace moci, jež existovaly v pátém století př. n. l.

This article explores the profound impact of visualism and visual perception in the context of medical imaging diagnostics. It emphasizes the intricate interplay among vision, embodiment, subjectivity, language, and historicity within the realm of medical science and technology, with a specific focus on image consciousness. The study delves into the role of subjectivity in perception, facilitating the communication of opacity and historicity to the perceiving individual. Additionally, it scrutinizes the image interpretation process, drawing parallels to text interpretation and highlighting the (...) influence of personal biases and individuality in medical practice. By revisiting Husserl’s conceptualization of “image consciousness” and introducing the notion of “image theme”, the paper seeks to establish a theoretical framework for making sense of images within the context of technological interpretation. A key objective is to enhance the phenomenology of technology through a systematic analysis of medical imaging diagnosis, contributing to an expanded epistemological foundation for medical practice. The article recognizes that the construction of medical knowledge incorporates subjective elements, especially within a historical context. The interpretation of images involves both instrumental and expert interpretation, with human subjectivity playing a crucial role. The article asserts that human creativity and conscious engagement are indispensable in interpreting all medical images. (shrink)

When considering the introduction of a new intervention in a budget constrained healthcare system, priority setting based on fair principles is fundamental. In many jurisdictions, a multi-criteria approach with several different considerations is employed, including severity and cost-effectiveness. Such multi-criteria approaches raise questions about how to balance different considerations against each other, and how to understand the logical or normative relations between them. For example, some jurisdictions make explicit reference to a large patient benefit as such a consideration. However, since (...) patient benefit is part of a cost-effectiveness assessment it is not clear how to balance considerations of greater patient benefit against considerations of severity and cost-effectiveness. The aim of this paper is to explore the role of a large patient benefit as an independent criterion for priority setting in a healthcare system also considering severity and cost-effectiveness. By taking the opportunity cost of new interventions (i.e., the health forgone in patients already receiving treatment) into account, we argue that patient benefit has a complex relationship to priority setting. More specifically, it cannot be reasonably concluded that large patient benefits should be given priority if severity, cost-effectiveness, and opportunity costs are held constant. Since we cannot find general support for taking patient benefit into account as an independent criterion from any of the most discussed theories about distributive justice: utilitarianism, prioritarianism, telic egalitarianism and sufficientarianism, it is reasonable to avoid doing so. Hence, given the complexity of the role of patient benefit, we conclude that in priority practice, a large patient benefit should not be considered as an independent criterion, on top of considerations of severity and cost-effectiveness. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to look at an early 17th-century analysis of a prince’s management of an ‘agglomerate polity’ in order to obtain a view of its chief focuses, concerns, and terms of analysis. Four main types of issues appear (apart from Grotius’ general analysis of Philip’s person and policies, which are also discussed): 1. Acceptation and legitimacy of a prince who was perceived to ignore local customs, rights and interests of his various territories; 2. The king’s representatives (...) and intermediaries, their (mis)management of their task, or the King’s (mis)management of them; 3. The conflicting demands of international politics; 4. Controlling armies and the connected issue of financial resources. The ‘Tacitean’ mode of writing history was regarded as the most ‘true’ and ‘revealing’ historiography in Grotius’ time. However Tacitean perceptiveness and analysis were not about what historians today regard as deeper historical processes and causation (like those associated with the ‘philosophic’ histories from the Enlightenment onwards, e.g. in Edward Gibbon), but about understanding personal motives and (hidden) immediate causes and intentions behind particular events and decisions. This historic differences in historical explanation should be taken into account when judging the value of Grotius’ history of his own time. (shrink)

Jan Westerhoff unfolds the story of one of the richest episodes in the history of Indian thought, the development of Buddhist philosophy during the first millennium CE. He aims to offer the reader a systematic grasp of key Buddhist concepts such as non-self, suffering, reincarnation, karma, and nirvana.

This is a short presentation by the Guest Editors of the series of Special Issues of the journal _Philosophies_ under the common title “Contemporary Natural Philosophy and Philosophies” in which we present Part 2. The series will continue, and the call for contributions to the next Special Issue will appear shortly.

ABSTRACT Ernst Fraenkel’s seminal study about Nazi law, in which he described the co-existence of a ‘normative state’ and a ‘prerogative state’ as principles of government, is to be rediscovered in the new age of the prerogative. Through a critical reading of The Dual State and other important texts by Fraenkel, this article seeks to contribute to the contemporary debate on regime types and governmental power in three regards: first, by clarifying Fraenkel’s concept of and perspective on law; second, by (...) discussing the methodological demands for the beneficial application of the dual state concept; and, third, by showing the usefulness of such an application, even beyond the field of authoritarian states in the narrower sense. Law-eroding prerogative developments cannot only be witnessed in hybrid regimes, but also in democratic states, which resort to reflections and practices of an ‘enemy criminal law’, and in the European Union’s recent crisis politics. (shrink)

When there are two lines of argument that contradict each other but still end up with the same conclusion, this conclusion is called a floating conclusion. It is an open topic in skeptical defeasible reasoning if floating conclusions ought to be accepted. Inter- estingly, the answer seems to be changing for different examples. In this paper, we propose a solution for explaining the different treatments of the floating conclusion in the various examples from the literature. We collect the examples from (...) the literature, extend them with additional examples and test various hypotheses for explaining the difference by means of the examples. We will argue for a framework that accepts a floating conclusion by default but allows for reasons to deviate from the default in order to reject it. These reasons nicely explain the different underlying patterns of our intuitions. (shrink)

Evaluation of clinical ethics support services (CESS) has attracted considerable interest in recent decades. However, few evaluation studies are explicit about normative presuppositions which underlie the goals and the research design of CESS evaluation. In this paper, we provide an account of normative premises of different approaches to CESS evaluation and argue that normativity should be a focus of considerations when designing and conducting evaluation research of CESS. In a first step, we present three different approaches to CESS evaluation from (...) published literature. Next to a brief sketch of the well-established approaches of ‘descriptive evaluation’ and ‘evaluation of outcomes’, we will give a more detailed description of a third approach to evaluation—‘reconstructing quality norms of CESS’—which is explicit about the normative presuppositions of its research (design). In the subsequent section, we will analyse the normative premises of each of the three approaches to CESS evaluation. We will conclude with a brief argument for more sensitivity towards the normativity of CESS and its evaluation research. (shrink)

Profesor Krzysztof A. Meissner proponuje obraz transcendencji wynikającej z poznawania świata przez fizykę, która oznacza świat uniwersalnych i niezmiennych praw przyrody. Czy tego rodzaju wypowiedzi są uprawnione na gruncie fizyki, czy też należy uznać je za określony pogląd filozoficzny? Czy istnienie praw przyrody wskazuje na istnienie jakieś transcendencji? Publikacja jest zapisem dyskusji wokół książki: Krzysztof A. Meissner, Fizyk w jaskini światów (rozmawia Jerzy Sosnowski), (Biblioteka Więzi, tom 389, Warszawa 2023), która to dyskusja odbyła się 25 marca 2023 w Instytucie Filozofii (...) UKSW w Warszawie w ramach spotkania Katedry Filozofii Przyrody. ------------------------- Zgłoszono: 08/09/2023. Zrecenzowano: 03/11/2023. Zaakceptowano do publikacji: 15/11/2023. (shrink)

The limiting of violence through state powers is one of the central projects of the modern age. Why then have recent centuries been so bloody? In Trust and Violence, acclaimed German intellectual and public figure Jan Philipp Reemtsma demonstrates that the aim of decreasing and deterring violence has gone hand in hand with the misleading idea that violence is abnormal and beyond comprehension. We would be far better off, Reemtsma argues, if we acknowledged the disturbing fact that violence is normal. (...) At the same time, Reemtsma contends that violence cannot be fully understood without delving into the concept of trust. Not in violence, but in trust, rests the foundation of true power. Reemtsma makes his case with a wide-ranging history of ideas about violence, from ancient philosophy through Shakespeare and Schiller to Michel Foucault, and by considering specific cases of extreme violence from medieval torture to the Holocaust and beyond. In the midst of this gloomy account of human tendencies, Reemtsma shrewdly observes that even dictators have to sleep at night and cannot rely on violence alone to ensure their safety. These authoritarian leaders must trust others while, by means other than violence, they must convince others to trust them. The history of violence is therefore a history of the peculiar relationship between violence and trust, and a recognition of trust's crucial place in humanity. A broad and insightful book that touches on philosophy, sociology, and political theory, Trust and Violence sheds new, and at times disquieting, light on two integral aspects of our society. (shrink)

Bernard Bolzano is increasingly recognized as one of the greatest nineteenth-century philosophers. A philosopher and mathematician of rare talent, he made ground-breaking contributions to logic, the foundations and philosophy of mathematics, metaphysics, and the philosophy of religion. Many of the larger features of later analytic philosophy first appear in his work: for example, the separation of logic from psychology, his sophisticated understanding of mathematical proof, his definition of logical consequence, his work on the semantics of natural kind terms, or his (...) anticipations of Cantor's set theory, to name but a few. To his contemporaries, however, he was best known as an intelligent and determined advocate for reform of Church and State. Based in large part on a carefully argued utilitarian practical philosophy, he developed a program for the non-violent reform of the authoritarian institutions of the Hapsburg Empire, a program which he himself helped to set in motion through his teaching and other activities. Rarely has a philosopher had such a great impact on the political culture of his homeland. Persecuted in his lifetime by secular and ecclesiastical authorities, long ignored or misunderstood by philosophers, Bolzano's reputation has nevertheless steadily increased over the past century and a half. Much discussed and respected in Central Europe for over a century, he is finally beginning to receive the recognition he deserves in the English-speaking world. This book provides a comprehensive and detailed critical introduction to Bolzano, covering both his life and works. (shrink)

Szkolnictwo elementarne prowadzone przez parafie i zakony katolickie obrządku łacińskiego na ziemiach polskich przyłączonych do Rosji w latach 1772–1795 aż do reformy systemu edukacyjnego wprowadzonej w 1803 r. nie były kontrolowane przez władze państwowe. Prowadziły one działalność na podstawie dawnego prawa polskiego lub zgodnie z zasadami wywodzącymi się z tradycji staropolskich, akceptowanymi przez władze kościelne i rodziców posyłających dzieci na naukę. Jedyną instytucją nadzorującą były władze kościelne, które zbierały informacje o stanie szkolnictwa oraz starały się wpływać na plebanów i władze (...) zakonne, by organizowały szkoły elementarne przy każdej parafii i każdym klasztorze. Jesienią 1797 r. w niekanonicznej diecezji pińskiej funkcjonowało 147 szkółek parafialnych lub zakonnych. Szkoły te zorganizowano w 120 miejscowościach (72% ze 166 miejscowości, w których istniała świątynia parafialna lub zakonna nieparafialna). W porównaniu do stanu szkolnictwa elementarnego w ostatnich latach niepodległości Rzeczpospolitej liczba szkół znacznie wzrosła. Należy jednak pamiętać, że raporty z 1797 r. odnotowują każdą formę prowadzonego nauczania. W czasach Komisji Edukacji Narodowej nauczanie przy parafii i w klasztorach sierot i dzieci z ubogich rodzin, a także nauka prowadzona według starych wzorców traktowane byłyby jako nauczanie prywatne, nie szkoła formalna. Zwykle nie odnotowywano takich miejsc nauczania w spisach szkół. Jeśli za szkołę formalną działacze oświatowi uznawali tylko taką, której program pokrywał się z treściami zawartymi w elementarzu wydanym przez Komisję Edukacji Narodowej (nauka pisania i czytania, rachunki, katechizm i nauka powinności moralnych), to tak uczono tylko w 21 szkołach diecezji pińskiej (18%). Widoczne jest także trzymanie się przez duchowieństwo zasady, że szkoła elementarna, przeznaczona z zasady dla dzieci szlacheckich, powinna przygotowywać do nauki w szkołach wyżej zorganizowanych. Świadczy o tym prowadzenie w aż 47 placówkach nauczania języka łacińskiego (39%). W 140 szkółkach elementarnych rządcy parafii lub przełożeni zakonni odnotowali w raportach liczbę dzieci uczących się w szkołach. Jesienią 1797 r. w diecezji pińskiej uczyło się 1669 dzieci, w znakomitej większości chłopców. Do większości szkół uczęszczało kilku lub kilkunastu uczniów. Przeciętnie w szkole elementarnej diecezji pińskiej uczyło się wówczas 11,9 uczniów, czyli niewiele więcej niż w latach poprzedzających trzeci rozbiór Polski (wówczas średnio na szkołę przypadało 11,2 uczniów). Dziewczęta kształcono w 7 konwiktach prowadzonych przez zakony żeńskie, w których uczyło się 122 uczennic, według takich samych zasad jak w Polsce przedrozbiorowej. Wychowaniem i nauczaniem w nich zajmowało się 148 osób, 67 księży i zakonników oraz 81 pedagogów świeckich. Duchowni z zasady nie pobierali wynagrodzenia, uczyli bowiem w ramach obowiązków duszpasterskich. Nauczyciele świeccy za naukę w szkole byli wynagradzani przez plebanów, przełożonych zakonnych, rodziców, właścicieli ziemskich lub pobierali opłatę z funduszu kościelnego z tytułu posługi organisty lub kantora. Wynagrodzeniem za naukę mogła być pensja, dochody fundacyjne, akcydensy (opłaty okazyjne), użytkowanie ziemi ornej, sadu i ogrodu, opłaty uczniowskie, legaty pieniężne i naturalia. (shrink)

«Wer die heilige Schrift liebt, liebt auch die Philosophie, um durch sie den Glauben zu bestärken; aber die Philosophie ist der Baum der Erkenntnis von Gut und Böse, weil in ihr die Falschheit der Wahrheit beigemischt ist». Dieser Ausspruch Bonaventuras in einer Adventspredigt zu Joh 1,26-27 aus dem Jahre 1267 spiegelt die ganze Ambivalenz wider, die sich in seinen Schriften mit Bezug auf die Philosophie findet. Dem unverkennbaren philosophisch-spekulativen Impetus seines Denkens steht eine teilweise harsche Philosophen- und Philosophiekritik gegenüber. «Die (...) Philosophen gaben neun Wissenschaften und versprachen, eine zehnte zu geben, nämlich die Schau. Aber indem sich viele Philosophen von der Finsternis des Irrtums trennen wollten, verstrickten sie sich in größere Irrtümer; und indem sie sich weise nannten, wurden sie zu Toren; indem sie auf ihr Wissen stolz waren, wurden sie zu Gefolgsleuten Luzifers». (shrink)

This essay in honour of Carlos Steel examines a fundamental thesis behind the medieval metaphysics of the good, namely the «goodness of being» thesis, according to which everything that is is good. The basic text used is a Quodlibet disputed by the Parisian master Gerard of Bologna at the beginning of the fourteenth century, in which he discusses various determinations of the nature of the good. This discussion reveals the difficulties to which the metaphysics of the good can lead: is (...) it really the case that every being is good? (shrink)

The focus of this article is on an ambivalent conception in medieval thought, namely the term ‘transcendens’, which on the one hand signifies a reality beyond created beings, i.e. God, and on the other hand signifies something common to all beings. Armandus de Bellovisu, in his Declaratio difficilium terminorum, has thematized exactly this difference between transcendence that follows from ‘nobility of being’ and that which follows from ‘commonness of predication’. The medieval term ‘transcendens’, because of its ambiguity, thus includes two (...) fundamental concepts, which represent divergent philosophical tendencies concerning the specification of First Philosophy: the one understands it as «Philosophy of Transcendence», the other as «Transcendental Philosophy». The history of metaphysics is characterized by the tension between these two tendencies, but as we shall see, it also shows that they are intimately connected. (shrink)

Bundel filosofische essays over kunst en esthetica.

Opstellen over de invloed van de Duitse filosoof (1889-1976) op de filosofie in Nederland. Bevat bibliografie.

Although the European Union is today largely understood as the guarantor of peace and prosperity on the continent, a continued but neglected aspect of discourses of European integration has been military integration. The idea of a European army appealed in particular to West-German military elites. European military integration, they understood in part as a pragmatic response to technological and geopolitical developments. But they also sought to conceive of a way to safeguard both the West-German state and the Christian Occident from (...) Bolshevik invasion. The solution was a European soldier, who embodied a set of masculine, Christian values. Such an image was a result of experiences gathered on the Eastern Front during the Second World War, which continued to shape the West-German military elite’s thinking about European integration into the late 1960s. (shrink)

In recent years, the research field of the evolution of art has witnessed contributions from a wide range of disciplines across the "three cultures". In this thesis, I make both a critical review of existing explanations, and try to do elucidate the evolution of art by employing insights, methods and concepts from different disciplines. First, I critically evaluate the evidentiary criteria from standard evolutionary psychology some accounts employ to demonstrate that art qualifies as a human biological adaptation. I argue that (...) these criteria do not suffice to make that claim. Furthermore, I make the case for a cultural evolutionary approach to the arts. One commonly used evidentiary criterion for art as adaptation is the “tight fit” between artnbsp;human cognition, which is interpreted as suggesting that cognition has undergone selection to produce and appreciate art. However, disentangling cultural and genetic evolution allows formulating thenbsp;hypothesis that art has evolved culturally to match human cognition. Second, I observe that in ancient and modern hunter gatherer societies, artistic activities are virtually alwaysnbsp;with ritual. I discuss what this implies for the adaptive significance of art. Specifically, if the arts have culturally evolved in function of ritualistic purposes, their adaptive value has depended on the adaptiveness of ritual. Third, because architecture is characterized by the combination of utilitarian and aesthetic aspects, it is particularly interesting from an evolutionary perspective and therefore I devote special attention to it. Employing the cross-species comparative approach, I investigate two main purposes human architecture has in common with nonhuman animal constructions: protection andnbsp;Based on the phylogenetic approach I establish that protection may have been the primary function of building aptitudes in humannbsp;and that building was later co-opted for signaling purposes. Subsequently, I comparatively evaluate thenbsp;of signaling models in the cultural evolution of architectural aesthetics. Furthermore I combine insights from environmental psychology, niche construction and cultural evolution theory to develop the hypothesis that a function of religious monumental architecture may have been to support nbsp;or even to galvanize nbsp;social learning. Finally, I connect the account I developed to the cognitive science of religion. I complement the frequently held view that religious monumental architecture is a costly signal with the mechanism of sensory exploitation. I attempt to demonstrate that by exploiting thenbsp;response of awe in religious followers, religious monumental architecture promotes and regulates prosocial behavior and creates in them an openness to adopt supernatural beliefs. Fourth, I dealnbsp;the evolution of visual art, paying again special attention to cultural evolution andnbsp;explanatory value of sensory exploitation. I assert that the relatively late appearance of figurative art in the course of human evolution may be attributed to an increase in the number of social learning opportunities within and between human populations at that time. I support this assertion with archaeological data that indicate overall population growth and increased population densities at that time. These demographic changes, I argue, have allowed the retention and accumulation of innovations required for figurative art making. Contrary to previous accounts, I furthermore aim to show that this process doesnbsp;require figurative art to have served adaptive purposes. Employing sensory exploitation, I establish that figurative art could have evolved by exploiting pre-existing biases of evolved psychology. The dominant themes of upper Paleolithic and late stone age figurative art, animals and humans, seem to support this contention. Fifth, I present a number of experimental studies I conducted to verify whether contemporary art experts would have socially learned to resist exploitation of evolved psychology. One aspect ofrsquo;s exploitative power may be that it elicits aesthetic pleasure by pushing “pleasure buttons” that evolved for other purposes. Consequently, spectators may trade-off rewards from indulging in art and biological activities, resulting in less effort being allocated to reproduction. I contend that, while the generalnbsp; may indeed be exploited, experts, who are typically being exposed to high doses of art, may have socially learned to resist exploitation by selectively preferring art from prestigious art contexts. The latter would be in line with the claim that prestige bias may trump content biases of evolved psychology. The results of three experimental studies supportnbsp;contention. I find that laypeople's art appreciation is positively affected by a content bias for attractive faces, mediated by aesthetic pleasure, whereas experts' appreciation is positively affected by prestige and mediated by admiration for the artist. Moreover, experts confer lower appreciation to attractive compared to moderately attractive content, which is consistentnbsp;the contention that expertise and the use of prestige are associatednbsp;resistance against beautiful content that exploits evolved preferences. This research thus suggests that expertise moderates content and context biases, which may be of relevance to an ongoing debate about their relative importance as drivers of cultural evolution. In addition, this study provides a tentative but novel explanation for the fact, famously established by philosopher Arthur Danto, that beauty lost its central position in Western art during the 20th century. However my findings cannot exclude alternative explanations for the fact that art expert appreciation deviates from evolved aesthetic preferences. Further research may experimentally assess the role of prestige bias and resistance as drivers of this deviation versus other, previously suggested, potential processes. For example, preferences of experts may deviate on account of the fact that art serves as a badge of elite group membership and thus expert art appreciation as a means to distinguish oneself from the masses. Alternatively, art experts may seek intellectual challenges instead of pushing pleasure buttons. Future research may experimentally verify the respective roles of these different hypothesized mechanisms. In addition, it may be investigated how insights from sexual selection research may help elucidating the different processes at play in cultural evolution and particularly in the cultural evolution of art appreciation, given the commonalities between sexual selection and cultural selection models. (shrink)

Among others, the term problem plays a major role in the various attempts to characterize interdisciplinarity or transdisciplinarity, as used synonymously in this paper. Interdisciplinarity is regarded as problem solving among science, technology and society and as problem orientation beyond disciplinary constraints. The point of departure of this paper is that the discourse and practice of ID have problems with the problem. The objective here is to shed some light on the vague notion of problem in order to advocate a (...) specific type of interdisciplinarity: problem-oriented interdisciplinarity. The outline is as follows: Taking an ex negativo approach, I will show what problem-oriented ID does not mean. Using references to well-established distinctions in philosophy of science, I will show three other types of ID that should not be placed under the umbrella term problem-oriented ID : object-oriented ID, theory-oriented ID, and method-oriented ID. Different philosophical thought traditions can be related to these distinguishable meanings. I will then clarify the notion of problem by looking at three systematic elements: an undesired state, a desired state, and the barriers in getting from the one to the other. These three elements include three related kinds of knowledge: systems, target, and transformation knowledge. This paper elaborates further methodological and epistemological elements of problem-oriented ID. It concludes by stressing that problem-oriented ID is the most needed as well as the most challenging type of ID. (shrink)