Seiner inzwischen weit verbreiteten Dogmatik (1995, 20073) lässt der emeritierte Heidelberger Systematische Theologe und Ethiker nunmehr eine Ethik folgen. Auch sie zeichnet sich aus durch Klarheit und Verständlichkeit der Sprache, durch biblisch-theologische Fundierung und ausgeprägten Gegenwartsbezug. Sie hat einen Grundlegungs- und einen Konkretisierungsteil. Der Grundlegungsteil führt in ethische Grundbegriffe, Theorien, Argumentationen und Urteilsbildung ein. Dabei kommen philosophische und theologische Zugangsweisen gleichermaßen zur Geltung. Der Anwendungsteil orientiert sich an konkreten, aktuellen Konzepten wie Menschenwürde; Gesundheit; Sexualität, Liebe und Lebensformen; Gerechtigkeit; Friede und (...) Sprache. Eine zusammenfassende Einführung in die evangelische Sozialethik schließt den Band ab. Bibelstellen-, Personen- und Begriffsregister sorgen für eine sehr gute Benutzbarkeit. Das Buch eignet sich sowohl für das Selbststudium wie auch als Textgrundlage in Lehrveranstaltungen. Studierende und Berufspraktiker in Schule und Pfarramt sowie interessierte Zeitgenossen finden hier verlässliche Informationen zu ethischen Fragen unserer Zeit und - vor allem - Anleitung zur eigenständigen ethischen Urteilsbildung. (shrink)

Thema der vorliegenden Arbeit ist der dialektische Gehalt der wichtigsten bildungstheoretischen Abhandlungen des padagogischen Theoretikers Josef Derbolav. Ergebnis der zum grossten Teil immanent durchgefuhrten Analyse ist der Aufweis, dass Derbolav die dialektische Fassung didaktischer, anthropologischer und handlungstheoretischer Prinzipien aufgrund metaphysischer Denkstrukturen nicht oder nur teilweise gelingt. Inwieweit einige dieser Prinzipien dialektisches Potential enthalten konnten, zeigt der Verfasser anhand der Entwicklung eines eigenen, an der hermeneutischen Philosophie orientierten dialektischen Standpunktes.".

Based on the author's thesis, Freiburg i. B., 1969.

English summary: Does pastoral care require ethical competence in order to fulfil its task properly? And, conversely, to what extent does ethical reflection require feedback from pastoral experience in order to remain true to life and of practical relevance? Wilfried Sturm examines the way hospital pastors deal with ethical challenges and conflict situations in neonatal clinics and enquires into the insights that can be gained from them for the relationship of pastoral care and ethics. German description: Braucht Seelsorge ethische (...) Kompetenz, um ihrem Auftrag gerecht zu werden? Inwiefern bedarf umgekehrt die ethische Reflexion der Ruckkopplung an seelsorgerliche Erfahrung, um lebensnah und praxisrelevant zu bleiben? Wilfried Sturm untersucht den Umgang von Klinikseelsorgerinnen und -seelsorgern mit ethischen Herausforderungen und Konfliktsituationen in der Fruh- und Neugeborenenmedizin und fragt, welche Einsichten sich daraus fur das Verhaltnis von Seelsorge und Ethik gewinnen lassen. (shrink)

This chapter contains section titled: Human Rights in Rawls's The Law of Peoples Human Rights as Universal Claim Rights Human Rights Minimalism and the Problem of Justification Acknowledgments Notes.

Since their inception, the Perspectives in Logic and Lecture Notes in Logic series have published seminal works by leading logicians. Many of the original books in the series have been unavailable for years, but they are now in print once again. This volume, the fifteenth publication in the Lecture Notes in Logic series, collects papers presented at the symposium 'Reflections on the Foundations of Mathematics' held in celebration of Solomon Feferman's 70th birthday (The 'Feferfest') at Stanford University, California in 1988. (...) Feferman has shaped the field of foundational research for nearly half a century. These papers reflect his broad interests as well as his approach to foundational research, which emphasizes the solution of mathematical and philosophical problems. There are four sections, covering proof theoretic analysis, logic and computation, applicative and self-applicative theories, and philosophy of modern mathematical and logic thought. (shrink)

This article contributes to the debate on governance of emerging technologies, focusing in particular on the international level and taking into account the fact that these technologies are developed through a common effort of different stakeholders including governments, research communities, industry and civil society actors. These issues are explored from the perspective of communitarian ethical criticism of liberal social contract thinking, in order to enhance visibility of the influence collective non-state actors exercise on the development of these technologies. In particular, (...) the effect of different values in the discussion on emerging technologies on the perceived governance options is explored. A paradigm shift from defensive values such as security, risk and human rights to more optimistic values like peace, justice and integrity of creation is proposed and discussed. (shrink)

In this article, we extend the research on the public interest to non-audit engagements performed by accounting firms and public accountants. Our thesis is that non-audit engagements, as private goods, require a distinct approach to the public interest than auditing. We suggest that a public value perspective can be used conceptually to provide substantial criteria for designing non-audit engagements conducive to public value creation and greater accountability. We illustrate the applicability and consequences of a public value perspective by analyzing and (...) contrasting the decision of two judicial opinions deciding whether Deloitte and the lead partner of a consulting engagement failed to act in the public interest in engineering the sale of collapsed British carmaker MG Rover. We advocate for a significant change in ethical codes of conduct by defining public interest obligations, not only in terms of professional attributes, but also in terms of outcomes. Our approach also suggests a requirement regarding planning a non-audit engagement, including establishing a public value proposition detailing the planned nature of the engagement, and extent of the assessment of the intended public value creation. We discuss the aspirational function of codes of conduct to provide accountability other than in terms of technical output, and to maintain the legitimacy and purpose of the profession. (shrink)

In this rapid commentary, a mini-review is given of the present state-of-knowledge regarding the etiology and epidemiology of the new coronavirus 2019-nCoV and the risks for developing Acute respiratory distress syndrome. The available knowledge on the viral genomics, molecular biology and pathogenicity of viruses of the Coronaviridae family and other Nidovirales, forms a helpful template for understanding the present pandemic outbreak. However, important questions remain unanswered about the underlying mechanism causing the very high case fatality ratios and mechanisms regarding severe (...) reactions like ARDS, fatal cardiac and renal failures, associated with a number of important comorbidity factors. Immunological reactions to lung alveoles in particular in late phase ARDS in SARS-like CoV diseases, so far may not have received enough attention. Finally a shortlist of questions for high priority further research is suggested. (shrink)

Zuerst im 2CV, dann im umgebauten VW-Bus: Das Zürcher Fotografenpaar Margrit und Ernst Baumann, 1929 bzw. 1928 geboren, begann in den 1950er-Jahren rund um den Erdball zu reisen. Ihre Fotografien publizierten sie in Zeitschriften und Zeitungen wie Stern, Neue Zürcher Zeitung oder Das gelbe Heft und brachten so die Welt in die Wohnzimmer. Kosmopolitan und neugierig kamen sie zu Motiven mit Seltenheitswert: Farbporträts von Che Guevara gehören ebenso dazu wie Reportagen über die letzten Kopfjäger im ecuadorianischen Urwald. Ein Schwerpunkt dieser (...) reich bebilderten Doppelmonografie ist ihre Reise entlang der “Panamericana” 1957-1959, die Süd- und Nordamerika verbindet. Sie fotografierten Reportagen, Porträts und Landschaftsbilder und drehten den wohl ersten Farbfilm über den legendären Verkehrsweg. Dieser Film und ein Filporträt über die beiden Fotografen sind dem Buch auf DVD beigefügt. Das Buch präsentiert Funde aus ihrem Fotoarchiv - viele Bilder erstmals im Originalausschnitt - sowie Publikationen in Zeitschriften. Der Historiker und Schriftsteller Wilfried Meichtry erzählt vom ereignisreichen Leben des Paars, das sich zeitlebens als journalistische Handwerker verstanden hat. Der Fotohistoriker Markus Schürpf ordnet ihr Werk in die Foto- und Pressegeschichte ein, Nadine Olonetzky verfasst Begleittexte zu den Bildern. Eine Entdeckung in der Schweizer Fotogeschichte. (shrink)

This article analyses current trends in and future expectations of nanotechnology and other key enabling technologies for security as well as dual use nanotechnology from the perspective of the ethical Just War Theory (JWT), interpreted as an instrument to increase the threshold for using armed force for solving conflicts. The aim is to investigate the relevance of the JWT to the ethical governance of research. The analysis gives rise to the following results. From the perspective of the JWT, military research (...) should be evaluated with different criteria than research for civil or civil security applications. From a technological perspective, the boundaries between technologies for civil and military applications are fuzzy. Therefore the JWT offers theoretical grounds for making clear distinctions between research for military, civil security and other applications that are not obvious from a purely technological perspective. Different actors bear responsibility for development of the technology than for resorting to armed force for solving conflicts or for use of weapons and military technologies in combat. Different criteria should be used for moral judgment of decisions made by each type of actor in each context. In addition to evaluation of potential consequences of future use of the weapons or military technologies under development, the JWT also prescribes ethical evaluation of the inherent intent and other foreseeable consequences of the development itself of new military technologies. (shrink)

All stakeholders agree publicly that innovation and governance of emerging technologies should be done responsibly. However, the international debate on who should do what to contribute to this lofty goal is nowhere near a solution. The starting point of this paper is the issue of how and for which reason to engage stakeholders in addition to governments in the international governance of nanotechnology. This article examines the mainly North-American communitarian criticism of political liberalism and the related concept of subsidiarity in (...) order to shed new light on this discussion. The central research question is: Can a communitarian-subsidiarity perspective on the roles of governments, companies and civil society actors that hold a stake in emerging technologies clarify the grounds on which each actor should be expected to contribute to responsible research and innovation at the international level? After selecting some relevant aspects of a communitarian-subsidiarity model for a dialogue society, an analytical framework is proposed. This framework is then applied to the recent international dialogue on responsible governance of nanotechnology. The outcomes of the analysis are compared to the OECD planning guide on public engagement and outreach in nanotechnology, and indicators for monitoring progress in responsible global innovation are suggested. The main contribution of the selected communitarian-subsidiarity perspective is that it offers philosophical grounds for a return of citizens to the driving seat in cooperative international responsible innovation. (shrink)

In this article we give a unifying approach to the theory of fundamental sequences and their related Hardy hierarchies of number-theoretic functions and we show the equivalence of the new approach with the classical one.

The Hygiene Hypothesis has been recognized as an important cornerstone to explain the sudden increase in the prevalence of asthma and allergic diseases in modernized culture. The recent epidemic of allergic diseases is in contrast with the gradual implementation of Homo sapiens sapiens to the present-day forms of civilization. This civilization forms a gradual process with cumulative effects on the human immune system, which co-developed with parasitic and commensal Helminths. The clinical manifestation of this epidemic, however, became only visible in (...) the second half of the twentieth century. In order to explain these clinical effects in terms of the underlying IgE-mediated reactions to innocuous environmental antigens, the low biodiversity of antigens in the domestic environment plays a pivotal role. The skewing of antigen exposure as a cumulative effect of reducing biodiversity in the immediate human environment as well as in changing food habits, provides a sufficient and parsimonious explanation for the rise in allergic diseases in a highly developed and helminth-free modernized culture. Socio-economic tendencies that incline towards a further reduction of environmental biodiversity may provide serious concern for future health. This article explains that the “Hygiene Hypothesis”, the “Old Friends Hypothesis”, and the “Skewed Antigen Exposure Hypothesis” are required to more fully explain the rise of allergy in modern societies. (shrink)

There is a tension between the idea of popular sovereignty and our understanding that basic constitutional rights and liberties have a normative authority which is independent from the results of democratic decision‐making procedures. On the one hand there is the claim that the content of political justice, at least as far as the basic liberties are concerned, is to be fixed solely by substantive moral and political argument, while on the other there is the claim that it is the people (...) who determine the specific scheme of basic liberties that they live under. The apparent tension between the two claims can be resolved by introducing, firstly, a distinction between the concept of justice and the concept of legitimacy and, secondly, between proto‐rights and constitutional rights. Unlike constitutional rights, proto‐rights are moral, not legal, rights, and they are less specific than constitutional rights: one set of proto‐rights allows for various schemes of legal constitutional rights. Proto‐rights are part of the principles of justice and can be established only by substantive argument while constitutional rights have to be established by the procedures of democratic legitimization, and, therefore, they are a result of the exercise of popular sovereignty. The correlated distinctions between justice and legitimacy, and between proto‐rights and constitutional rights, allow us to specify the scope of the two claims and, hence, to affirm both simultaneously. The philosophical and legal relevance of the distinctions made is elucidated by a brief discussion of the constitutional rights of freedom of speech in the US and Germany. (shrink)

The term ‘environment’ is not uniformly defined in the public health sciences, which causes crucial inconsistencies in research, health policy, and practice. As we shall indicate, this is somewhat entangled with diverging pathogenic and salutogenic perspectives (research and policy priorities) concerning environmental health. We emphasise two distinct concepts of environment in use by the World Health Organisation. One significant way these concepts differ concerns whether the social environment is included. Divergence on this matter has profound consequences for the understanding of (...) health and disease, for measures derived from that understanding targeting health promotion and disease prevention, and consequently, for epistemic structures and concept development in scientific practice. We hope to improve the given situation in public health by uncovering these differences and by developing a fruitful way of thinking about environment. Firstly, we side with the salutogenic conception of environment as a _health resource_ (as well as a source of health risks). Secondly, we subdivide the concept of environment into four _health-oriented environmental categories_ (viz., natural, built-material, socio-cultural, and psychosocial) and we link these with other theoretical notions proposed in the health sciences literature. Thirdly, we propose that in public health ‘environment’ should be understood as consisting of all extrinsic factors that influence or are influenced by the health, well-being, and development of an individual. Consequently, none of the four categories should be excluded from the concept of environment. We point out the practical relevance and fruitfulness of the conception of environment as a health source and frame this in causal terms, representing _individual health environments_ as causal networks. Throughout, we side with the view that for the design of human health-promoting settings, increased attention and consideration of environmental resources of salutogenic potential is particularly pressing. (shrink)

[1] Textteil : Grundlagen, Prozeduren, Evaluation -- [2] Anhang : Interviewleitfaden, Tonbandtranskript und Auswertungsbeispiele.

In Hume’s Of Miracles the person movecl by faith is put in a dilemma between faith and reason. Can one resolve this dilemma as a compleat Humean? The answer is yes. Within the Humean context different approaches can be developed ta overcome Hume’s dilemma. One uses Hume’s theory of utility to defend the belief in the afterlife. The other requires Hume to place faith on a par with beauty and therefore among the passions to which reason must be a slave. (...) Historically there was at least one compleat Humean who was also moved by faith --- Johann Georg Hamann [1730- 1788]. (shrink)