How are data science systems made to work? It may seem that whether a system works is a function of its technical design, but it is also accomplished through ongoing forms of discretionary work by many actors. Based on six months of ethnographic fieldwork with a corporate data science team, we describe how actors involved in a corporate project negotiated what work the system should do, how it should work, and how to assess whether it works. These negotiations laid the (...) foundation for how, why, and to what extent the system ultimately worked. We describe three main findings. First, how already-existing technologies are essential reference points to determine how and whether systems work. Second, how the situated resolution of development challenges continually reshapes the understanding of how and whether systems work. Third, how business goals, and especially their negotiated balance with data science imperatives, affect a system’s working. We conclude with takeaways for critical data studies, orienting researchers to focus on the organizational and cultural aspects of data science, the third-party platforms underlying data science systems, and ways to engage with practitioners’ imagination of how systems can and should work. (shrink)

The extant manuscripts of Nicholas of Cusa’s private library are not only a unique testimony to the reading world of one of the most important philosophers of the 15th century. They also document the material context of a specific literary activity by their reader: as is well known, Cusanus frequently annotated his books, noting his thoughts in the margins. This paper focuses on Cusanus’ marginalia as an object of research and edition. In a first step, the essay reconstructs the 20th-century (...) editorial history of this special textual tradition and embeds it in the developments of the modern philological and historiographical work on Nicholas of Cusa. In a second step, it offers an interpretation of Cusanus’ marginalia as a coherent textual corpus and investigates the reading and writing practices to which this corpus bears witness. Finally, against this background, the paper presents a case for the scientific relevance of a continuation and re-conception of the critical edition of Cusanus’ marginalia, which began in 1941 with the first volume of the series Cusanus-Texte III. Marginalien and has remained unfinished to date. (shrink)

"Dialogisches Handeln" ist eine Sammlung von philosophischen BeitrAgen zum dialogischen Konstruktivismus im Sinne von Kuno Lorenz, der Philosophie als eine Kommunikation mit Selbstreflexion versteht. Dabei umfaAt der Dialog in diesem Buch verschiedene Disziplinen der Philosophie - von der Anthropologie A1/4ber die Grundlagen von Logik und Sprachphilosophie bis hin zur Wissenschafts- und Erkenntnistheorie. Die Reflexion auf die kommunikativen Grundlagen wissenschaftlichen Austauschs schlieAt dabei Denkperspektiven verschiedener Wissenschaften - von der Psychologie bis zu Physik und Chemie - ebenso ein wie die philosophischen Disziplinen.

In a recent publication in the European Journal for Philosophy of Science, Romero and Pérez claim to reveal new trouble for the already difficult life of presentism in relativistic spacetimes. Their argument purports to demonstrate the impossibility of postulating a viable present in the presence of black holes, in particular the Schwarzschild geometries. I argue that their argument is flawed, and that the Schwarzschild geometries they consider offer no novel threats to presentism. However, if we consider more general black holes, (...) different and more potent threats may be lurking in the dark. I discuss these threats and sketch how a presentist may respond, thus painting a more balanced picture of the way the existence of black holes might impact presentist metaphysics. At present there is no decisive verdict from black holes, but it turns out a close scrutiny of the developments in the relevant physics will be needed to see whether their import will remain so inconclusive. (shrink)

This volume contains 3 papers published here for the first time as well as 13 studies from the years 1979-2001 in revised and in part expanded form.

The general picture of the history of Dutch Catholicism is that of a unified, hierarchic, ultra-montane subculture between 1870-1960 that was replaced for a liberal, open-minded, world-oriented identity after Vatican II. But in daily life, contrary to the official declarations, the Church and its members gradually adapted to modern society already after 1920. With the help of rational choice theory on religion, this shift from ‘sect’ to ‘church’ in this period will be highlighted. Catholics became ordinary citizens, changed their position (...) towards the national state and Catholic intellectuals introduced modern developments in the Catholic social organizations. By 1960, Catholics could no longer be discerned as different from the rest of society. The article therefore makes a plea to re-evaluate the period 1920-1960 from this perspective, also from an international perspective. (shrink)

Der erste Teil1 dieses Forschungsberichts gab einen Überblick über die philologisch-philosophische Erschließung der Schriften des Nikolaus von Kues durch Editionen und Übersetzungen. Die Fortsetzung behandelt: die historische Forschung zur Lebensgeschichte und Interpretationsversuche und vergleichende Studien.

Diese Monographie über Nikolaus von Kues (1401-1464) stellt auf der Grundlage der historischen Forschung des letzten Jahrhunderts im ersten Teil das Leben des Kardinals und einflussreichen römischen Kirchenpolitikers dar. Sie skizziert im zweiten Teil das Werk seiner philosophisch-theologischen, kirchen- und staatspolitischen sowie der mathematischen und naturwissenschaftlichen Schriften in Einzeldarstellungen, um im dritten Teil die Lehre unter systematisierenden Aspekten nach thematischen Gesichtspunkten darzulegen. Im vierten Teil geht der Autor auf der Grundlage einer jahrzehntelangen Arbeit mit historisch-kritischer Quellen- und Wirkungsgeschichte der Nachwirkung (...) dieser Lehre im Umkreis des Nikolaus von Kues und deren Fortwirken vom 16. bis ins 20. Jahrhundert nach. Alle Teile werden durch umfangreiche bibliographische Verzeichnisse im Sinn einer "bibliographie raisonnée" erschlossen, die auch die aus Anlass des 600. Geburtstags und des 550. Todestags weltweit erschienene umfangreiche Literatur zu Leben, Werk und Lehre in historischer Einordnung berücksichtigt. (shrink)

Mit der Erfindung des Buchdrucks war die Zeit handschriftlicher Überlieferung von Texten noch lange nicht vorbei. Trotz der rapiden Verbreitung des neuen Druckmediums stand der Zugang zu ihm nur wenigen offen. Schriften anerkannter Autoritäten wurden im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert postum gedruckt, auch solche einflußreicher Multiplikatoren, vielfältig auch die Kunst der Holzschneider und Kupferstecher. Die Schriften derer, die weniger Anerkennung gefunden hatten, auf Skepsis gestoßen oder verurteilt worden waren, hatten verständlicherweise kaum eine Chance, gedruckt zu werden. Dennoch wäre es ganz (...) falsch, in allen Fällen handschriftlicher Textüberlieferung des 16., 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts auf eine geringere Bedeutung des nach traditioneller Art tradierten Autors zu schließen. Auch Schriften anerkannter, gar ‘kanonisierter' Autoren, deren Werke in einer Edition oder in mehreren Ausgaben bereits gedruckt vorlagen, wurden noch handschriftlich aus Manuskripten, aber auch aus Drucken kopiert. Nach Beispielen dafür braucht man nicht lange zu suchen. Beispiele aus der Cusanus-Überlieferung habe ich früher schon verzeichnet. (shrink)

In the field of health technology assessment, there are several approaches that can be used for ethical analysis. However, there is a scarcity of literature that critically evaluates and compares the strength and weaknesses of these approaches when they are applied in practice. In this paper, we analyse the applicability of some selected approaches for addressing ethical issues in HTA in the field of complex health interventions. Complex health interventions have been the focus of methodological attention in HTA. However, the (...) potential methodological challenges for ethical analysis are as yet unknown.Six of the most frequently described and applied ethical approaches in HTA were critically assessed against a set of five characteristics of complex health interventions: multiple and changing perspectives, indeterminate phenomena, uncertain causality, unpredictable outcomes, and ethical complexity. The assessments are based on literature and the authors’ experiences of developing, applying and assessing the approaches.The Interactive, participatory HTA approach is by its nature and flexibility, applicable across most complexity characteristics. Wide Reflective Equilibrium is also flexible and its openness to different perspectives makes it better suited for complex health interventions than more rigid conventional approaches, such as Principlism and Casuistry. Approaches developed for HTA purposes are fairly applicable for complex health interventions, which one could expect because they include various ethical perspectives, such as the HTA Core Model® and the Socratic approach.This study shows how the applicability for addressing ethical issues in HTA of complex health interventions differs between the selected ethical approaches. Knowledge about these differences may be helpful when choosing and applying an approach for ethical analyses in HTA. We believe that the study contributes to increasing awareness and interest of the ethical aspects of complex health interventions in general. (shrink)