Philosophy of education is regarded as an art of hermeneutics that integrates a theory of mimesis in its understanding of the educational transmission. The idea of the master is reconsidered in this perspective in order to overcome the old opposition between classicism and romanticism. In that way the author attempts to respond to the question: What is the secret to pedagogically sound education?

If ‘power’ means cultural and political influence, philosophy has become a global world power. Philosophical argumentation and reflection constitute a non-economical, non-technological, and non-military power by the word that is capable of challenging the other powers, exposing lies and illusions, and proposing a better world as dwelling for humanity.Often the power of the philosophical word has been ignored, when philosophy was seen as pure description, pure reference, an innocent mirror, that forgets itself and make us present to things. However, if (...) philosophy has the power of the word, not all kinds of philosophizing are necessarily good for humanity. It can be very seducing for a group, and give food for mass suggestion making that appeals to the worst part of ourselves. We have learnt to understand how philosophy in itself may not only enlighten and liberate, but also seduce and manipulate. Today, philosophy has lost its innocence; we cannot philosophize without reflection on our linguistic practice. But we philosophers are not only called to understand ourselves. We must also contribute to developing an understanding of the power of the word more generally. And as citizens of the world, we must recognize that humiliation of others might be the most brutal violence we can practice without directly killing. (shrink)

One often forgets that the economical, technological and military powers do not possess the monopoly of power in the world. Philosophical argumentation and reflection constitute a non-economic, non-technological and non-military power by the word that is capable of challenging the other powers, exposing lies and illusions, and proposing a better world as a dwelling for humanity.

Sociology was born as an attempt to delimit an object of investigation offered by society as a social reality. The ambition was that of "treating the social facts as things" (Durkheim) or of understanding and explaining the social relations by respecting an "axiological neutrality" (Max Weber). Today, however, we are in the presence of a new kind of sociologists, and they are by no means the less popular ones, who are not trying to avoid assessments in their analysis of the (...) present social world. I have in mind especially two sociologists, Ulrich Beck (Munich) and David Held (London). I will discuss in particular the view of sociology presented in a recent book of Ulrich Beck ( Macht und Gegenmacht im globalen Zeitalter , 2002, translated into French under the title Pouvoir et contre-pouvoir à l'ère de la mondialisation , 2003), and I will show some analogies between Beck and Held. Finally, I will try to identify the points that make the present sociological epistemology different from that of the great founders of this science. (shrink)

From 1995 to 1998, the European Commission supported the “Basic Ethical Principles in European Bioethics and Biolaw” research project . The project was based on cooperation between 22 partners coming from most EU countries. Its aim was to identify the ethical principles relating to autonomy, dignity, integrity and vulnerability as four important ideas or values for a European bioethics and biolaw. An important resume of the BIOMED project was the partner’s Policy Proposals to the European Commission, the Barcelona Declaration of (...) 1998 , which is unique as a philosophical and political agreement between experts in bioethics and biolaw from many different countries. In this article, we want to compare the Barcelona Declaration with some other recent international Documents on bioethics and biolaw. We will relate the Barcelona Declaration to the framework of different international documents and codes of conduct about bioethics and biolaw. In particular, we will look at the similarities and differences when compared with the Council of Europe’s Convention for the Protection on of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with Regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine, adopted by the Committee of Ministers in 1996. Moreover, we will look at The UNESCO Declaration on the Humane Genome from 1997. Thus, the Barcelona Declaration does not only represent European ethical principles for bioethics and biolaw, but the document should also be conceived as a conceptual clarification and articulation of major ethical principles, which are central to international concerns for a universal bioethics and biolaw. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to show why the humanities are more necessary than ever as part of the university education in our contemporary cosmopolitan age. We need the humanities if our educational institutions are to overcome the threats from narrow-minded politicians and business people to reduce education in schools and universities to simple instruction in management without guidance from the cultures of the world as expressed in art and literature, knowledge of languages, history, and philosophy. Keywords: education; university; (...) humanities; institution; cosmopolitanism. (shrink)

Le thème de la communication exprime le conflit entre deux expériences fondamentales de la condition humaine : comprendre le monde et se soucier d'autrui. Le conflit apparaît d'abord sur le plan de la société. On peut retrouver ce conflit au niveau de l'existence sous forme d'une contradiction entre l'intérêt pour le langage et l'intérêt pour l'Autre, ou entre l'herméneutique et l'éthique. Si cette contradiction nest pas insurmontable, comme i'essaye de le montrer, même la contradiction sur le plan social pourrait être (...) résolue. There exists a conflict between two fundamental experiences of the human condition : that of understanding the world and taking heed of the Other. In the first place the conflict manifests istelf on the social level. The conflict is also to be found on the existential level in the form of a contradiction between hermeneutics and ethics. However, if this contradiction is not insurmountable, as this paper attempts to show, it should oho be possible to resolve the contradiction on the social level. (shrink)

This collection of essays is dedicated to the prolific career of Paul Ricoeur. Honoring his work, this anthology addresses questions and concerns that defined Ricoeur’s.

The Ambiguity of Globalization -- The Paradox of the Nation -- The Utopia of Sustainability -- The Premodern Cosmopolitan -- The Modern Cosmopolitan -- Cultivation With and For Others -- Hermeneutics as Cultivation : Mimesis -- Philosophy of Education as Hermeneutics -- The Global Cosmopolitan.

Ethische Grundprinzipien in der europäischen Bioethik und im Biorecht” ist der Titel eines Forschungsprojekts, das von 1995 bis 1998 von der EU-Kommission unterstützt wurde. Das Projekt gründete sich auf die Zusammenarbeit von 22 Partnerorganisationen aus der Mehrzahl der EU-Staaten. Es sollten ethische Grundprinzipien ermittelt werden, die sich ableiten aus Autonomie, Würde, Integrität und Verwundbarkeit als den vier Ausschlag gebenden Ideen bzw. Werten, die in der Bioethik und im Biorecht in Europa zum Tragen kommen sollen. Aus dem Resümee des EU-BIOMED-Projektes wurde (...) ein Rahmenprogramm der EU-Kommission abgeleitet und 1998 in der Deklaration von Barcelona festgehalten . Bei dieser Deklaration handelt es sich um einen einzigartigen Text, der die philosophische und politische Übereinstimmung von Experten aus dem Bereich der Bioethik und des Biorechts aus vielen Staaten dokumentiert. Im vorliegenden Artikel soll die Barcelona-Deklaration mit einigen internationalen Dokumenten zu Bioethik und Biorecht jüngeren Datums verglichen werden. Die Autoren stellen die Deklaration in Zusammenhang mit den Richtlinien, die in verschiedenen anderen internationalen Dokumenten und Rechtsvorschriften zum Vorgehen im Bereich der Bioethik und des Biorechts vorgegeben sind. Besondere Aufmerksamkeit gilt dem Vergleich mit der Konvention zum Schutz der Menschenrechte und der Würde der Menschen im Hinblick auf die Bereiche Biologie und Medizin, die 1996 vom EU-Ministerrat verabschiedet wurde. Sodann wurde die UNESCO-Deklaration betreffend des menschlichen Genoms und der Menschenrechte aus dem Jahre 1997 näher untersucht. Die Barcelona-Deklaration präsentiert also nicht nur die in Europa angestrebten ethischen Grundsätze in Bioethik und Biorecht, sondern erläutert und artikuliert ethische Grundprinzipien, die sich weltweit im Mittelpunkt des Interesses für universale Bioethik und Biorecht befinden. (shrink)

Europska komisija je od 1995. do 1998. podupirala istraživački projekt »Temeljni etički principi u europskoj bioetici i biopravu« . Projekt se temeljio na suradnji 22 partnera iz većine država Europske unije. Cilj projekta bio je identificirati etičke principe povezane s autonomijom, dostojanstvom, integritetom i ranjivošću kao četirima važnim idejama ili vrijednostima za europsku bioetiku i biopravo. Važan sažetak BIOMED projekta bio je Prijedlog Smjernica Europskoj komisiji – Deklaracija iz Barcelone iz 1998. godine – koja je jedinstvena jer predstavlja filozofsku i (...) političku suglasnost stručnjaka za bioetiku i biopravo iz mnogih država. U ovome tekstu želimo usporediti Deklaraciju iz Barcelone sa nekim drugim novijim međunarodnim dokumentima o bioetici i biopravu. Povezat ćemo Deklaraciju iz Barcelone sa okvirom koji nude različiti međunarodni dokumenti i propisi o djelovanju u bioetici i biopravu. Posebno ćemo se usmjeriti na sličnosti i razlike sa Konvencijom o zaštiti ljudskih prava i dostojanstva ljudskih bića u pogledu primjene biologije i medicine, koju je prihvatilo Vijeće ministara 1996., te ćemo promotriti i UNESCOvu Deklaraciju o ljudskom genomu iz 1997. Dakle, Deklaracija iz Barcelone ne predstavlja samo europske etičke principe u bioetici i biopravu, nego ujedno pojašnjava i artikulira osnovne etičke principe koji se nalaze u središtu međunarodnog interesa za univerzalnu bioetiku i biopravo. (shrink)