Friedrich Wilhelm Graf skizziert die Biographie des in den 1950er und 1960er Jahren uberaus einflussreichen Hamburger Systematischen Theologen Helmut Thielicke, um dann dessen Aktivitaten zur Grundung einer Zeitschrift fur Theologische Ethik zu rekonstruieren. Dabei untersucht er auch Thielickes Kontakte zu dem amerikanischen Theologen Reinhold Niebuhr und zu Paul Tillich. Vorgestellt werden die von Thielicke zunachst in den Blick genommenen Herausgeber, seine Programmentwurfe zu Aufgabe und Profil der seit Januar 1957 erscheinenden Zeitschrift fur Evangelische Ethik und das tatsachliche Herausgebergremium, dem (...) neben Thielicke protestantische Universitatstheologen wie Heinz-Dietrich Wendland, Hendrik van Oyen, Wolfgang Schweitzer sowie der kirchlich vielfaltig engagierte rheinische Unternehmer Friedrich Karrenberg und der spatere WDR-Intendant Klaus von Bismarck angehorten. Durch die dichte Analyse der in den ersten Jahrgangen der Zeitschrift fur Evangelische Ethik gefuhrten Kontroversen uber die atomare Bewaffnung sowie den Institutionenbegriff zeigt Friedrich Wilhelm Graf, dass die ZEE primar ein Organ innerprotestantischer Verstandigung sein und zugleich die politisch-soziale Gestaltungskraft des bundesdeutschen Protestantismus starken sollte. Trotz ihres dezidiert internationalen Anspruchs wurde die Zeitschrift schon bald zu einem Organ, in dem hauptsachlich nur noch deutschsprachige protestantische Theologen publizierten. (shrink)

This paper is an attempt to think through paranoia’s epistemic and affective features, which pervade both the worldview presented in Senecan tragedy and the inner life of many of its protagonists. Drawing upon recent literary-critical work, I argue that paranoia is temporally and epistemically ambivalent: subjects simultaneously attempt to “get ahead” of a looming cataclysm—looking to the future in an attempt to avert disaster—while inevitably “falling behind,” failing to predict or preempt the future in time to protect themselves. Much of (...) Senecan tragedy plays out paranoia’s future-oriented vigilance on the formal level. Foreshadowing, allusions, and meta-literary flourishes serve to render both readers and characters hyperaware of the earth-shattering horrors to come; however, in doing so, they also reveal that this forward-oriented bracing only serves to dredge up negative affect in advance. By contrast, I argue that Seneca’s Phoenissae thematizes in the character of Oedipus not only paranoia’s future-looking vigilance but also its inherent lagging, the failure to know and act in advance. These elements of slowness, stuckness, and delay open a space for stillness, relief, and intimacy, even within a narrative which hurtles toward cataclysm. (shrink)

Recent decades have seen the facilitation of unconventional or even extraordinary reproductive endeavours. Sperm has been harvested from dying or deceased men at the request of their wives; reproductive tissue has been surgically removed from children at the request of their parents; deceased adults’ frozen embryos have been claimed by their parents, in order to create grandchildren; wombs have been transplanted from mothers to their daughters. What is needed for requests to be honoured by healthcare staff is that they align (...) with widely shared expectations about what people’s reproductive potential ought to be, what marital relationships ought to result in, and which kinds of ties are desirable between parents and children. Costly and invasive technologies are not considered excessive when they are used to support the building of appropriate families. However, deviations from dominant reproductive norms, even if technologically simple and convenient to the participants, are unlikely to receive support. In this paper, we offer examples of such deviations and explore their implications. If reproduction is important as a way of creating genetic relationships, should reproductive material in storage be offered to genetic relatives other than the people from whom it originated? And if parents are allowed to have reproductive material collected from their offspring, or even to use it to create babies, should offspring likewise be allowed to use their parents’ reproductive material? We tackle these questions and suggest ways in which interests in genetic ties could be operationalised in a more coherent and less-invasive manner than they currently are. (shrink)

Starting from the assumption that aesthetic is an anthropological fact which like language or symbolic thought belongs to the behavioral, cognitive and social register of our species, the article aims to clarify the uses of the category of aesthetic in the human sciences (social anthropology, cognitive psychology, evolutionary anthropology). The epistemological analysis focuses on the implicit assumptions that guide the different methodologies and leads to the elaboration of a conceptual map of the several models of aesthetic adopted in the contemporary (...) debate. Such a result is presented as a preliminary analytical step aimed at fostering an interdisciplinary approach to the complexity and socio-biological diversity of aesthetic phenomena. // Lo estético es un hecho antropológico que —como el lenguaje o el pensamiento simbólico— pertenece al registro comportamental, cognitivo y social de nuestra especie. A partir de esta consideración, el artículo pretende aclarar los usos de la categoría de lo “estético” en las ciencias humanas (antropología social, psicología cognitiva, antropología evolutiva). La investigación epistemológica se concentra en los supuestos implícitos que guían las diferentes metodologías y enfoques teóricos, y finalmente propone un mapa conceptual de los modelos estéticos adoptados en el debate contemporáneo. Este resultado se presenta como un paso analítico preliminar destinado a promover un enfoque interdisciplinario de la complejidad y diversidad sociobiológica de los fenómenos estéticos. (shrink)

In April 1994, two as-yet-unreleased letters by Sartre and one by Merleau-Ponty were published in the "Magazine Littéraire". Their publication sparked new interpretative hypotheses on the political and philosophical motivations behind the break of the relationship of mutual esteem, friendship, and fruitful intellectual collaboration between Merleau-Ponty and Sartre. The bright tone of their personal contrasts testified the profound theoretical differences between the two thinkers, both at philosophical level and political praxis. This volume covers the period between the launch of the (...) magazine "Les Temps Moderns" in 1945 and Sartre's decision to no longer accept Merleau-Ponty's contributions in 1953, offering a detailed analysis of the respective position of the two philosophers and of an irreducible intellectual distance between them. (shrink)

Einleitung -- I. Teil : Theorie. Verwandlung des Klaviertons ; Die Entdeckung der Objektivität der Musik ; Die Vergegenwärtigung der dynamischen Ordnung der Musik ; Handwerk und Kunst--Meisterschaft und Inspiration des Augenblicks--Verwesentlichung und Individualisierung -- II. Teil : Praxis. Übergang : Erkenntnis im Vollzug ; Sechs Grundmaximen für die Arbiet am Klavier ; Zwölf praktische Übungen zur fortschreitenden Erschliessung der musikalischen Dynamik in ihrer Vielschichtigkeit ; Supplement : Wilde Jagd--eine zusammengesetzte Zusatzübung für Fortgeschrittene -- Schlussbetrachtung.

Die Evolutionstheorie hat sich in den letzten 150 Jahren von einer speziellen naturwissenschaftlichen zur universellen wissenschaftlichen Theorie entwickelt.

Was haben Gerechtigkeit, Frieden, Glück und Wertebildung miteinander zu tun? Der Band beantwortet diese Frage interdisziplinär. Die BeiträgerInnen untersuchen Lernprozesse hinter gerechtem Urteilen, setzen sich mit Projekten zur Friedensstiftung durch Konfliktberatung auseinander und analysieren schulische Programme zur Förderung von Zufriedenheit und Glück. Sie erläutern darüber hinaus die Relevanz von Wertebildung in einem fachspezifischen Curriculum und denken Gerechtigkeits-, Friedens- und Glücks-bildung historisch und systematisch weiter. Die AutorInnen kommen aus den Erziehungswissenschaften, der Philosophie und aus den Theologien oder sind FachpädagogInnen und -didaktikerInnen.

'Cenários construtivistas - temas e problemas' pretende ampliar a esfera dos estudos literários com uma perspectiva que fundamenta a sua investigação em pressupostos epistemológicos construtivistas. Esta coletânea reúne textos de trabalhos discutidos no Colóquio Construtivismo, realizado em setembro de 2008 no âmbito do Programa de Pós-Graduação de Estudos de Literatura do Departamento de Letras da PUC-Rio. Os artigos reunidos oferecem pistas para outros modos de olhar a literatura através de lentes construtivistas.

Within collective epistemology, there is a class of theories that understand the epistemic status of collective attitude ascriptions, such as ‘the college union knows that the industrial action is going to plan’, or ‘the jury justifiedly believes that the suspect is guilty’, as saying that a sufficient subset of group member attitudes have the relevant epistemic status. In this paper, I will demonstrate that these summativist approaches to collective epistemology are incompatible with epistemic permissivism, the doctrine that a single body (...) of evidence may rationalize multiple doxastic attitudes. In particular, I will make use of epistemic permissivism to provide a general recipe for generating so-called divergence cases, which demonstrate situations in which rationality requires group-level and member-level attitudes to diverge. I will call this class of cases permissive divergence cases. While other divergence cases have been discussed in the literature, permissive divergence cases prove themselves to be less susceptible to many of the worries raised against their competitors, while being directly built on an often-defended epistemological thesis. (shrink)

In kritischer Distanz zu etablierten religiosen Institutionen suchen sie auf ihre spezifische Weise Lebenssinn zu generieren. Insoweit sind sie selbst zentrale Akteure der modernen Religionsgeschichte.

Patrick Lenta’s Corporal Punishment: A Philosophical Assessment provides a thorough, well-researched, accessible, and philosophically convincing examination of the normative status of the corporal...

Dieses letzte große Buch Troeltschs entstand in einem komplizierten Arbeitsprozess zwischen 1915 und 1922 und gilt als der zentrale Text im geschichtsphilosophischen Diskurs der 20er Jahre. Der gefeierte Berliner Kulturphilosoph verarbeitete hier die traumatischen Erfahrungen des Ersten Weltkriegs und suchte durch sein Konzept der „europäischen Kultursynthese“ ethische Potentiale europäischer Integration und die Aussöhnung der Deutschen mit der westlichen Demokratie zu fundieren. Dazu verarbeitete er weit über 1000 Titel aus dem zeitgenössischen geschichtsphilosophischen Diskurs. Diese erste kritische Edition des Textes bietet neben (...) allen Entwicklungsstufen erstmals auch eine präzise Dokumentation der reichen Diskussionslage. (shrink)

Motivation und Ikonizität : Die Frage nach dem richtigen Wort -- Der Zusammenhang von Polysemie, Ikonizität und lexikalischer Motivation -- Empirische Ermittlung lexikalischer Motivation : Die Frage nach der richtigen Methode -- Der Einfluss konzeptueller Relationen auf intrinsische und extrinsische Motivierbarkeit -- Polysemie und Skalen diagrammatischer Transparenz : Ein formales und semantisches Transparenzmodell -- Zusammenfassung und Schlussbemerkungen.

I-Language introduces the uninitiated to linguistics as cognitive science. In an engaging, down-to-earth style Daniela Isac and Charles Reiss give a crystal-clear demonstration of the application of the scientific method in linguistic theory. Their presentation of the research programme inspired and led by Noam Chomsky shows how the focus of theory and research in linguistics shifted from treating language as a disembodied, human-external entity to cognitive biolinguistics - the study of language as a human cognitive system embedded within the (...) mind/brain of each individual. The recurring theme of equivalence classes in linguistic computation ties together the presentation of material from phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. The same theme is used to help students understand the place of linguistics in the broader context of the cognitive sciences, by drawing on examples from vision, audition, and even animal cognition.This textbook is unique in its integration of empirical issues of linguistic analysis, engagement with philosophical questions that arise in the study of language, and treatment of the history of the field. Topics ranging from allophony to reduplication, ergativity, and negative polarity are invoked to show the implications of findings in cognitive biolinguistics for philosophical issues like reference, the mind-body problem, and nature-nurture debates.This textbook contains numerous exercises and guides for further reading as well as ideas for student projects. A companion website with guidance for instructors and answers to the exercises features a series of pdf slide presentations to accompany the teaching of each topic. (shrink)

It is widely believed that we ought not to criticize others for wrongs that we ourselves have committed. The author draws out and challenges some of the background assumptions about the practice of criticism that underlie our attraction to this claim, such as the tendency to think of criticism either as a social sanction or as a didactic intervention. The author goes on to offer a taxonomy of cases in which the moral legitimacy of criticism is challenged on the grounds (...) that the critic him- or herself engages in the behavior that he or she criticizes in others. The author argues that, in each type of case, the would-be critics should not constrain their participation in moral discourse on the grounds that they are not themselves innocent of the wrongdoing they criticize in others. (shrink)

Die "Consolatio philosophiae" von Boethius war im Mittelalter ausserordentlich verbreitet. Als eines der wichtigsten Werke der mittelalterlichen Ethik und zugleich Schullektüre wurde sie häufig kommentiert und in die Volkssprachen übertragen. Die in MS. Hamilton 46 der Bodleian Library, Oxford, überlieferte, 1465 abgefasste Übersetzung ist eine von insgesamt vier noch erhaltenen deutschsprachigen Versionen der Trostschrift, die in der 2. Hälfte des 15. Jahrhunderts unabhängig voneinander entstanden sind. Nur im Oxforder Codex wird die deutsche Übersetzung mit ihrer lateinischen Vorlage samt lateinischer Glossen (...) überliefert. Dadurch ist eine einzigartige Grundlage gegeben, von der aus die Arbeitsweise und Intention des Übersetzers genau untersucht werden kann. In der vorliegenden Publikation wird der Boethius-Text der Hamiltoner Handschrift, der sich aus Grund-, Paratext und deutscher Übersetzung zusammensetzt und im Original nur sehr schwer zu lesen ist, zum ersten Mal in Form einer wissenschaftlichen Edition und Studie zugänglich gemacht. Der synoptischen Edition des lateinischen Basistextes samt vielschichtiger Glossen und der deutschen Fassung folgen ein vergleichender Kommentar und zwei Glossare, welche jeweils Übersetzungstechniken und Wortschatz eingehend erschliessen. Der Edition vorausgeschickt ist eine Studie, die sich mit der Sprache und Provenienz der Übertragung, ihrem Entstehungs- und Verwendungskontext, ihrer Stellung innerhalb der deutschen "Consolatio"-Tradition, ihrer Abhängigkeit vom lateinischen Text und den Glossen, mit dem lateinischen Grund- und Paratext sowie den unterschiedlichen Textherstellungsphasen detailliert befasst."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

The chapter starts with an exploration of what the family is in order then to move on to look at its parts. The family has been defined in terms of its form (e.g. a mother, a father, and their biological offspring) or its function (e.g. adults taking and/or sharing custodial responsibility for children). In both of these cases, children are a necessary ingredient for a unit to be called a family – but the chapter also briefly reviews proposals to extend (...) the accolade of “family” to beyond child-rearing. From a perspective concerned primarily with family form, biological and more specifically genetic parents have been seen as those to whom children should be born, and by whom they should be raised. From a perspective concerned with family function, this is not necessarily the case. Lastly, the chapter looks at the relation between parents and the requirements that co-parenting may generate in this regard. (shrink)

This book addresses the endangerment of children’s bodies in affluent societies. Bodily integrity is an important part of a child’s physical and mental well-being, but it can also be violated through various threats during childhood; not only affecting physical health but also causing mental damage and leading to distortions in the development of the self. The authors give an account of three areas, which present different serious dangers: (1) body and eating, (2) body and sexuality, and (3) body and violence. (...) Through an in-depth examination of the available theoretical and empirical knowledge, as well as a thorough ethical analysis, the central injustices in the mentioned areas are identified and the agents with responsibilities towards children displayed. The authors conclude by providing invaluable insight into the necessity of an ethical basis for policies to safeguard children and their bodies. (shrink)

Academic dishonesty is a major problem and is thus a highly relevant area of inquiry. Considerable research has shown that key traits from the Big Five model of personality are associated with various forms of anti-social behaviour. To date, however, relatively little research interest has been devoted to study the relationship between personality traits and plagiarism. This study attempts to fill this gap by examining the relationship between the Big Five personality traits and the inclination to commit plagiarism by undergraduate (...) students. The main conclusion is that the inclination to plagiarize is negatively associated with Conscientiousness and Agreeableness traits. Neuroticism was not found to be related to the inclination to plagiarize. Implications of the findings are discussed. (shrink)