In der synthetischen Biologie werden Methoden insbesondere der Molekularbiologie, der Ingenieurwissenschaften und der Informationstechnik miteinander verbunden. Ziel dieser Kooperation ist die Erzeugung von biologischen Konstrukten, die weder eindeutig der Kategorie eines naturlich gewachsenen Organismus noch der einer technisch geschaffenen Maschine zuzuordnen sind. Die synthetische Biologie wirft damit ethische und naturphilosophische Fragen auf und stellt zudem neue Anforderungen an die bisherigen rechtlichen Regelungen.

Name der Zeitschrift: Jahrbuch für Wissenschaft und Ethik Jahrgang: 17 Heft: 1 Seiten: 119-124.

To reduce the global burden of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an urgent need to develop a safe vaccine. Vaccine development usually takes many years as it goes through several different phases. To hasten COVID-19 vaccine development, it has been suggested that the final stage could be replaced with a human challenge trial. Volunteers would be intentionally infected with SARS-CoV-2 to see how the vaccine candidate works. To intentionally infect a healthy human being with a potentially deadly virus is contrary (...) to the highest ethical standards in medical research. This article highlights the benefits and risks of COVID-19 HCTs and summarises what research ethics committees need to consider during the ethical assessment of such trials including risk reduction, strict containment measures, specific informed consent measures and avoiding high monetary inducements. (shrink)

As COVID-19 continues to spread, a variety of COVID-19 tracking apps have been introduced to help contain the pandemic. Deployment of this technology poses serious challenges of effectiveness, technological problems and risks to privacy and equity. The ethical use of CTAs depends heavily on the protection of voluntariness. Voluntary use of CTAs implies not only the absence of a legal obligation to employ the app but also the absence of more subtle forms of coercion such as enforced exclusion from certain (...) social and work activities. The protection of individual rights to voluntary use can be enhanced through an ethics by design approach in the development of CTAs that treat the introduction of CTAs for what it is: a complete novelty that is being tested for the first time in democracies. (shrink)

The upcoming Regulation No 536/2014 on clinical trials on medicinal products for human use, which will replace the current Clinical Trial Directive at the end of 2021, has triggered a significant reform of research ethics committee systems in Europe. Changes related to ethics review of clinical trials in the EU were considered to be essential to create a more favourable environment to conduct clinical trials in the EU. The concern is, however, that the role of the research ethics committees will (...) weaken in at least some of the Member States because the new Regulation allows narrowing down the scope of ethics review as compared with the currently valid Clinical Trial Directive. Although the new Regulation may lead to faster approval procedures for clinical trials, which is especially relevant in the context of pandemics, high-quality ethics reviews integrating methodological aspects of a clinical trial should nevertheless be ensured. To maintain high research ethics standards as well as to foster measures to mitigate potential negative consequences of the reform, it is therefore of vital importance to start debating and sharing the reflections about the potential consequences of these transformations and trends as soon as possible. (shrink)

Universities and other research institutions are increasingly providing additional training in research integrity to improve the quality and reliability of research. Various training courses have been developed, with diverse learning goals and content. Despite the importance of training that focuses on moral character and professional virtues, there remains a lack of training that adopts a virtue ethics approach. To address this, we, a European Commission-funded consortium, have designed a train-the-trainer programme for research integrity. The programme is based on (1) virtue (...) ethics, (2) the ethos of science, (3) learning by doing and (4) learner-centred teaching. The blended learning programme combines e-learning modules with participatory group sessions. Trainers are taught how to guide researchers through a series of structured exercises for fostering reflection on scientific virtues, and how to promote understanding and application of the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity. Trainers are provided with adaptable tools and resources that can be used and combined in different ways. The programme implementation began in Spring 2020 and 470 trainers have participated to date. When trainers were asked to grade – between 0 (very bad) and 10 (excellent) – the e-learning modules and the participatory exercises, 60% scored a grade 8 or higher (median = 8, IQR = 2) for the e-learning modules, whereas 80% scored a grade 8 or higher (median = 9, IQR = 1) for the participatory exercises. A majority felt that the training helped them as a trainer to learn about ways to organise and teach a research integrity course (82%) and would recommend the interactive exercises to others (92%). Trainers have educated over 3300 researchers in Europe using our virtue-based approach. The VIRT2UE train-the-trainer programme fosters research integrity by providing trainers with exercises and tools which enable them to stimulate the development of good researchers across Europe. (shrink)

Der Band widmet sich der aktuellen Entwicklung in der Humangenomforschung und der Biomedizin. Die neuen Einsichts- und Eingriffsmöglichkeiten nach der Entschlüsselung der menschlichen Gene konfrontieren Forscher und Gesellschaft mit ethischen, rechtlichen und soziokulturellen Fragen in der Genforschung am Menschen. Das Buch bietet einen Überblick über den aktuellen Stand der Forschung und ist zugleich eine hilfreiche Einführung in die gegenwärtige Diskussion. Daneben werden ausgewählte Bereiche vertieft behandelt: genetische Diagnostik, funktionelle Forschung mit therapeutischem Ziel, Pharmakogenetik und die individualisierte Medizin der Zukunft.

This text provides an introduction to the history and current state of theories of word meanings.

‘Know-that’, like so many natural language expressions, exhibits patterns of use that provide evidence for its context-sensitivity. A popular family of views – call it prag- matic invariantism – attempts to explain the shifty patterns by appeal to a pragmatic thesis: while the semantic meaning of ‘know-that’ is stable across all contexts of use, sentences of the form ‘S knows [doesn’t know] that p’ can be used to communicate a pragmatic content that depends on the context of use. In this (...) paper, the author argues that pragmatic invariantism makes inaccurate predictions for a wide range of well- known use data and is committed to attributing systematic pragmatic error to ordinary speakers. But pragmatic error is unprecedented, and it is doubtful that speakers are systematically wrong about what they intend to communicate. (shrink)

We show that it is impossible in quantum mechanics to describe two separated physical systems. This is due to the mathematical structure of quantum mechanics. It is possible to give a description of two separated systems in a theory which is a generalization of quantum mechanics and of classical mechanics, in the sense that this theory contains both theories as special cases. We identify the axioms of quantum mechanics that make it impossible to describe separated systems. One of these axioms (...) is equivalent to the superposition principle. We show how these findings throw a different light on the paradox of Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen. (shrink)

In "Plato's Ghost" Jeremy Gray presented many connections between mathematical practices in the nineteenth century and the rise of mathematical platonism in the context of more general developments, which he refers to as modernism. In this paper, I take up this theme and present a condensed discussion of some arguments put forward in favor of and against the view of mathematical platonism. In particular, I highlight some pressures that arose in the work of Frege, Cantor, and Gödel, which support adopting (...) a platonist position. The aim of this discussion is to provide an historically informed introduction to the philosophical position of mathematical platonism and to point at some of its mathematical and philosophical roots in the nineteenth century. (shrink)

We propose a characterization of mathematical experiments in terms of a setup, a process with an outcome, and an interpretation. Using a broad notion of process, this allows us to consider arithmetic calculations and geometric constructions as components of mathematical experiments. Moreover, we argue that mathematical experiments should be considered within a broader context of an experimental research project. Finally, we present a particular case study of the genesis of a geometric construction to illustrate the experimental use of hand drawings (...) and computers in mathematical practice. (shrink)

In Miletus, about 550 B.C., together with our world-picture cosmology was born. This book tells the story. In Part One the reader is introduced in the archaic world-picture of a flat earth with the cupola of the celestial vault onto which the celestial bodies are attached. One of the subjects treated in that context is the riddle of the tilted celestial axis. This part also contains an extensive chapter on archaic astronomical instruments. Part Two shows how Anaximander (610-547 B.C.) blew (...) up this archaic world-picture and replaced it by a new one that is essentially still ours. He taught that the celestial bodies orbit at different distances and that the earth floats unsupported in space. This makes him the founding father of cosmology. Part Three discusses topics that completed the new picture described by Anaximander. Special attention is paid to the confrontation between Anaxagoras and Aristotle on the question whether the earth is flat or spherical, and on the battle between Aristotle and Heraclides Ponticus on the question whether the universe is finite or infinite. (shrink)

In this paper we examine some of the astrological content in Proclus' exegesis of the 'nuptial number' in Republic 545d, ff. The downfall of the best city-state is said by Socrates to be due to the fact that the Guardians, for all their wisdom, make a mistake about the timing of the breeding of future rulers and this mistake is somehow due to perception. We argue that Proclus' Republic Commentary is best understood as supposing that the Guardians are highly capable (...) astrologers who can -- up until one fateful day -- reliably hit the astrological trifecta: they combine conception astrology with natal and katarchic astrology. The marriage festivals are timed so that future Guardians are conceived under the right stars, with pregnancies of the right duration, and are born under the right stars, with guardian daemons whose names and natures are known through an astrologically-oriented theurgic practice. All this (and more) Proclus took to be hinted at through Socrates' opaque specification of the marriage number. (shrink)

There has recently been a wave of attempts to make sense of the role of de se thoughts in linguistic communication. A majority of the attempts assume a Perryan or a Lewisian view of de se thought. Views with these assumptions, I suggest, come in four varieties: uncentering (Egan 2007, Kölbel 2013, Moss 2012), recentering (Heim 2004, Weber 2012), multicentering (Kindermann 2014, Ninan 2010, Torre 2009), and no centering (Kaplan 1989, Perry 1979). I argue first that all four varieties of (...) centering are committed to what I call a shifting operation on the hearer's part. I argue second that, against common assumption, there is no real choice to make between the views. By showing that attempts to establish an advantage for some view over the others fail across the board, I make the case for neutralism regarding the varieties of centering – the claim that coverage of the empirical data is exactly the same for each view, and that the views are broadly equal in simplicity and elegance. (shrink)

Was sind systematische Metaphern? Wie intelligent ist die Buchstabenschrift? Müssen Wahrheitstheorien wahr sein? Wie ist das Verhältnis von Sachen (i.e. kulturellen Gegenständen) und Sätzen (d.h. sprachlichen Einheiten) zu beschreiben? Dirk Westerkamps grundlegende Untersuchung widmet sich dem noch kaum systematisch behandelten Verhältnis von Sprach- und Kulturphilosophie. - Die Aufgabe der Kulturphilosophie besteht in der theoretischen Reflexion kultureller Tatsachen. Sprache wird ihr dabei nicht nur als Medium des kulturellen Gedächtnisses zum Thema: Die Sprache ist sowohl selbst eine kulturelle Tatsache als auch (...) Bedingung der Möglichkeit kultureller Faktizität überhaupt. Die Kulturphilosophie muss sich daher der Sprachanalyse bedienen, um ihren Gegenstand, das sich ständig neu anordnende Ensemble kultureller Tatsachen, angemessen bestimmen zu können. In einer Reihe von gründlichen Einzelstudien untersucht Dirk Westerkamp das Verhältnis von Sachen und Sätzen als systematisches Problem, das die Formen der symbolischen Reflexivität der Sprache in zwei ihrer wichtigsten philosophischen Facetten zu diskutieren erlaubt: in sowohl sprachphilosophischer wie wahrheitstheoretischer Hinsicht. Sprache und Schrift werden damit auf doppelte Weise thematisch: einmal als symbolische Ordnung kultureller Tatsachen und zweitens als Medien unseres Wahrheitsverständnisses. Entsprechend geht es im ersten Teil des Buches anhand des Leitbegriffs der symbolischen Reflexion um Verstehen und Nichtverstehen, Metaphern und Schrifttheorie und im zweiten um die Problematik einer sprachpragmatischen Wahrheitstheorie kultureller Tatsachen. In der hierfür gewählten Perspektive wechseln nicht nur historische und systematische, sondern auch methodische Zugänge: Sprachanalyse, Hermeneutik und Kulturphilosophie gehen eine ebenso spannungsreiche wie produktive Verbindung ein. (shrink)

Typisierungsleistungen der Massenkultur treten exemplarisch im Film hervor. Filme sind Formen, mit denen die Gesellschaft sich in ihren eigenen Wirklichkeiten und Möglichkeiten für die Augen eines Massenpublikums beschreibt. Sie richten die Wahrnehmung und die Kommunikation auf die Beobachtung kohärenter Möglichkeitsräume aus. Ihr Publikum laden sie dazu ein, sein Leben mit dem Leben in den Filmwelten zu vergleichen, denn die Differenz zwischen Leben und Kino steht nicht in Frage. Filme besitzen dieses Potential dank ihrer diagrammatischen Form. Bilder, Worte und Musik verschränken (...) sich in ihnen zu einer komplexen Einheit, deren Prägnanz und sinn-liche Wucht Erfahrungen innerweltlicher Transzendenz erlauben. Dieses Buch plädiert dafür, mit zeichenphilosophischen Mitteln zur Einheit der Differenz von Metaphysik, Religionsphilosophie und politischer Philosophie zurückzukehren. Aus der Beobachtung der modernen Kultur heraus entfaltet es einen systematischen philosophischen Anspruch. Exemplarisch werden”starke“Bilder analysiert, die scheinbar so weit Auseinanderliegendes wie Metaphysik, Religion und Politik in ihrer semiotischen Funktion verschränken. In seiner Darstellung hebt Rustemeyer charakteristische Züge der modernen westlichen Kultur hervor, indem er sie in den Horizont abendlän-discher Sinnformen stellt. Vorstellungen von Gott, Staat und Vernunft, von Individuum und Gesellschaft oder vom guten Leben, die uns in Filmen begegnen, sind in einer abendländischen Tradition verwurzelt, die Religion, Metaphysik und Politik in einen engen Zusammenhang rückt. (shrink)

Plato's Tim. 90b1-c6 describes a pathway to the soul's salvation via the study of the heavens. This paper poses three questions about this theme in Platonism: 1. The epistemological question: How is the paradigmatic function of the visible heavenly bodies to be reconciled with various Platonic misgivings about the faculty of perception? 2. The metaphysical question: How can »assimilation« to the motions of bodies in the realm of Becoming provide for the salvation of souls when souls are »higher«- a mid-point (...) between Being and Becoming? 3. The psychological question: What can it mean for an incorporeal soul to utilise the motions of a body for an ethical and cognitive paradigm? And provides an account of how Proclus and some of his fellow Neoplatonists answered these questions. (shrink)

Volume IV (which comprises two half-volumes) focuses on the life sciences, whose object of research is life itself, that which (necessarily) mediates between the physical and the psyche. Typical philosophical questions in this context include: What is “life” in the sense of the term relevant to the life sciences? How do we know that life has not “always existed” but must have arisen in the course of abiogenesis from inanimate nature? And how is it possible to know something about how (...) evolution has occurred? These are explored in the first half-volume. In its second half-volume, the book first deals with methodological and conceptual questions regarding the concrete natural history of mankind. Examples for pertinent questions in this context are: "What would be adequate criteria for singling out autapomorphic traits defining the genus "homo"?" and "Has the concept of "race" biological meaning and reality?" (Spoiler: The answer to the latter question is "no".) In the context of that question, a considerable part of the second half-volume deals with the history of "scientific" theories of race from the 17th century up until the 1990ies. In particular, Kant's theory of race and his racism (as well as his sexism) are discussed thoroughly. Pertinent questions are: "Did Kant invent the concept of race?", "Was Kant the founder of "scientific racism"?", "Did Kant invent and promote a concept of "racial purity"?" and "Did Kant endorse slave trade?". Furthermore, for anyone whose own philosophical positions rest on Kantian premises, the following questions will be of special importance: "Is Kant's racism implied by his transcendental philosophy?" and "Is Kant's racism implied by his ethics?" Regarding all these questions, the contributions of important authors like Eze, Bernasconi, Kleingeld and Mills are discussed and critically examined. Finally, the second half-volume closes with a thorough exploration of the methodological foundations of neuroscience and its limitations as a contribution to philosophy of mind (which as such will have its say in Volume VI). (shrink)

In honour of Detlef Dürr, we report on a mathematical rigorous computation of the electric vacuum polarisation current and extract the well-known expression for the second order perturbation. Intermediate steps in the presented calculation demonstrate, to the knowledge of the authors for the first time, mathematical rigorous versions of the combined dimensional and Pauli-Villars regularisation schemes. These are employed as computational tools to infer convenient integral representations during the computation. The said second order expression is determined up to a remaining (...) degree of freedom of a real number–without ill-defined terms from start to end. (shrink)

Gesprekken tussen filosoof en ecoloog Johan Braeckman en moraalfilosoof Dirk Verhofstadt over de evolutietheorie van Darwin, religie, irrationalieit, humanisme en atheïsme."--Publisher information.

Aus den wirtschaftlichen Turbulenzen des vergangenen Jahrzehnts leitet sich die Frage nach der Verantwortung fur die Gestaltung der Wirtschaftslandschaft ab. Die Arbeit untersucht daher, ob betriebswirtschaftliche Hochschullehrer die Werte ihrer Studierenden beeinflussen wollen und entwickelt ein detailliertes konzeptionelles Modell. Zur Modellvalidierung werden deskriptive Analysen, Strukturgleichungsmodelle und Clusteranalysen auf Daten aus einer weltweiten Befragung von 1.741 betriebswirtschaftlichen Hochschullehrern angewendet. Die Analysen zeigen weltweit eine starke Intention zur Wertebeeinflussung, mit besonderer Werteskepsis in Deutschland. Die Unterstutzung von Kollegen und Verbanden erwies sich als (...) wichtige Voraussetzung fur die Steigerung der Beeinflussungsintention.". (shrink)

To this day, there persists a widespread assumption that Adorno's references to Marx - and especially to Marx's critique of political economy - represent a relic from an early and short-lived stage of Adorno's theoretical development. On the basis of relevant and largely unpublished textual sources, this book refutes this thesis while showing that the centre of Adorno's critical theory of society is occupied by a critique not only of political economy, but of economy in general.

Dirk Paul Bogner widmet sich der Frage, welche Relevanz Kurt Lewins Feldtheorie im Bereich der pädagogischen Diagnostik haben könnte. Er untermauert die These, dass die Lewin’sche Feldtheorie eine völlig neue Sicht auf Lern-, Entwicklungs- und Erziehungsprozesse eröffnen würde, und legt dar, inwiefern die Einbeziehung der Dimension des Raumes die Analyse dieser erziehungswissenschaftlich relevanten Topoi verfeinern könnte. Er erörtert mittels hermeneutischer Textauslegung und vergleichender Dokumentenanalyse, warum Lewin keine erziehungswissenschaftliche Resonanz erzeugen konnte, obwohl in der Erziehungswissenschaft auch heute noch intensiv Begriffe, (...) die entweder direkt aus der Feldtheorie stammen oder aber von dieser konsequent definiert wurden, verwendet werden. (shrink)

It has been argued that organizational structures (the way tasks are defined, allocated, and coordinated) can influence moral agency in organizations. In particular, low values on different structural parameters (functional concentration, specialization, separation, and formalization) are said to foster an organizational context (allowing for relating to the goals and output of the organization, moral deliberation, and social connectedness) that is conducive to moral agency. In this paper, we investigate the relation between the organizational structure and moral agency in the case (...) of a.s.r. (a large Dutch insurance company). While our empirical results fit the thesis that low values on structural parameters positively relate to moral agency, they also refine our understanding of the influence of structural parameters. In particular, our data suggest that the influence of functional concentration not only depends on whether it is low, but also on the type of criterion used for identifying business units; they suggest that the specific organizational context may put a limit to lowering design parameters and points at several non-structural factors that have an influence on the relation between structure and moral agency. In all, the paper contributes to a more detailed understanding of the conditions conducive to moral agency in organizations. (shrink)

This book offers a penetrating analysis of issues raised by the perennial question, 'Are We Special?' It brings together scholars from a variety of disciplines, from astronomy and palaeontology to philosophy and theology, to explore this question. Contributors cover a wide variety of issues, including what makes humans distinct from other animals, the possibilities of artificial life and artificial intelligence, the likelihood of life on other planets, and the role of religious behavior. A variety of religious and scientific perspectives are (...) brought to bear on these matters. As a whole, the book addresses whether the issue of human uniqueness is one to which sciences and religions necessarily offer differing responses. (shrink)

The thesis of mental fragmentation has recently attracted increased attention as a way of explaining facts about mind and language. This volume provides an accessible introduction and essays on foundations and applications of fragmentation.