High levels of proinflammatory cytokines induce neurotoxicity and catalyze inflammation-driven neurodegeneration, but the specific release mechanisms from microglia remain elusive. Here we show that secretory autophagy (SA), a non-lytic modality of autophagy for secretion of vesicular cargo, regulates neuroinflammation-mediated neurodegeneration via SKA2 and FKBP5 signaling. SKA2 inhibits SA-dependent IL-1β release by counteracting FKBP5 function. Hippocampal Ska2 knockdown in male mice hyperactivates SA resulting in neuroinflammation, subsequent neurodegeneration and complete hippocampal atrophy within six weeks. The hyperactivation of SA increases IL-1β release, (...) contributing to an inflammatory feed-forward vicious cycle including NLRP3-inflammasome activation and Gasdermin D-mediated neurotoxicity, which ultimately drives neurodegeneration. Results from protein expression and co-immunoprecipitation analyses of male and female postmortem human brains demonstrate that SA is hyperactivated in Alzheimer’s disease. Overall, our findings suggest that SKA2-regulated, hyperactive SA facilitates neuroinflammation and is linked to Alzheimer’s disease, providing mechanistic insight into the biology of neuroinflammation. (shrink)

This paper makes an attempt at the conceptual foundation of descriptive ethical theories in terms of evolutionary anthropology. It suggests, first, that what human social actors tend to accept to be morally valid and legitimate ultimately rests upon empirical authority relations and, second, that this acceptance follows an evolved pattern of hierarchical behaviour control in the social animal species. The analysis starts with a brief review of Thomas Hobbes'' moral philosophy, with special emphasis on Hobbes'' authoritarian view of moral validity (...) and of the common political origins and ultimate basis of legitimacy of moral and legal systems. Hobbes'' philosophical conceptions are then put into the context of Max Weber''s influential empirical theory of legitimacy, especially charismatic revelation and authority as the ultimate source of all moral, legal and religious obligations. Weber''s concept of charismatic authority is given a biobehavioural interpretation in terms of ritualised status signals indicating an individual''s superior physical and emotional dispositions to control the social actions of others. Various conclusions are drawn concerning the concept of moral validity and its possible evolutionary interpretations. (shrink)

Article Jean Anderfuhren: Politik aus dem Evangelium. Theol. Verlag Zürich / Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenforde: Der Staat als sittlicher Staat, Wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen und Reden zu Philosophie, Politik und Geistesgeschichte / Max Geiger: Kirche, Staat, Widerstand. Theol. Verlag Zürich / Artbur Rich, Radikalität und Rechtsstaatlichkeit, Theol. V erlag Zürich was published on February 1, 1982 in the journal Zeitschrift für Evangelische Ethik (volume 26, issue 1).

Vasily Sesemann’s aesthetics is a transcendental philosophy that seeks to answer the question of how an experience of beauty is possible. Sesemann insists that aesthetics should focus on the study of the aesthetic object itself, and through it go to the problematics of the act of perception and creativity. Sesemann states that not only the relationship between the work of art and the perceiver is important in order to understand the aesthetic object, but also the relationship between the work of (...) art and the creator. The aesthetic object in its sedimented form not only retains indications of the act of creation, but also makes demands on the perceiving subject. Aesthetic objects are sedimented passive structures that can be activated by the performative actions of the perceiver when she discovers the appropriate way of perception. Sesemann, like Moritz Geiger, claims that aesthetics is impossible without an analysis of feelings. He, like Geiger, recognizes the importance of empathy in aesthetic experience. However, Sesemann develops the concept of aesthetic empathy using Max Scheler’s arguments. Empathy is necessary, because the perceiver must be able to understand expressions. The aim of this paper is to analyse the phenomenological aspects of Vasily Sesemann’s aesthetics. Firstly, this paper analyzes the Sesemann’s phenomenology of aesthetic experience. Secondly, it shows that the analysis performed by Sesemann demonstrates why empathy plays a leading role in aesthetic experience. (shrink)

In the history of philosophy as well as in most recent discussions, empathy is held to be a key concept that enables a basic understanding of the other while at the same time acting as the foundation of our moral emotionality. In this paper I want to show why empathy is the wrong candidate for both of these tasks. If we understand empathy as projection, i.e. a process of imaginary self-transposition, we are bound to presuppose a fully established interpersonal sphere. (...) If we consider empathy as synonymous with compassion it is highly questionable if we ever reach the other person in his or her otherness. Max Scheler and other early phenomenologists offer very fruitful approaches to both problems without resorting to empathy. I will present some of their thoughts and focus especially on Scheler’s claim about the connection between the experience of the real other and the intentionality of compassion. (shrink)

This chapter discusses the basics of Blaustein’s aesthetics, which is seemingly one of the main fields of his original philosophical project. Some scholars, e.g., Roman Ingarden, Stanisław Pazura, Bohdan Dziemidok, or, more recently, Wioletta Miskiewicz and Zofia Rosińska, have claimed that Blaustein should be regarded first and foremost as an aesthetician. Indeed, aesthetics is not so much the terminus a quo of his philosophy but rather its terminus ad quem. In this regard, in Chap. 4, it was suggested that Blaustein (...) redefined Kazimierz Twardowski’s theory of presentations to address the question of diverse aesthetic experiences. Moreover, Chap. 6 proposed the 1928 book on Husserl as the key to understanding Blaustein’s aesthetic theory, since in this book he argued that sensations are the basis of lived experiences, including aesthetic experiences. On the whole, aesthetics denotes a philosophical theory or theories concerning beauty and, for the most part, art. More specifically, it raises questions about, among other things, aesthetic values, taste, the aesthetic object and its relation to artworks, particular experiences that are described as aesthetic, or the attitude employed in such experiences; finally—starting from Immanuel Kant and his legacy—it asks about aesthetic judgment. Blaustein referred to a variety of traditional aesthetic topics, but all the listed topics were not equally important to him precisely because of the different traditions that inspired him. Whereas the question of aesthetic experience was central in his writings, the problems of aesthetic values or taste were rather marginal. Additionally, the issues of aesthetic objects and the specific attitude are important for understanding his approach. In turn, the topic of aesthetic judgment is simply absent in his writings. This clear shift in focus from beauty (as in the classic definition of aesthetics) and judgment (as in Kant’s philosophy) to an emphasis on experience seemingly followed from Blaustein’s theoretical background. The list of authors to whom he referred in his aesthetic writings is rich and diverse; in addition to Husserl, Ingarden, and Twardowski, he also mentioned, among others, Karl Bühler, Max Dessoir, Moritz Geiger, Karol Irzykowski, Konrad Lange, Zofia Lissa, Alexius Meinong, Stanisław Ossowski, Wilhelm Schapp, Emil Utitz, Johannes Volkelt, Mieczysław Wallis-Walfisz, Stefan Witasek, and Tadeusz Witwicki. More generally, Blaustein’s account of aesthetics was shaped in a critical discussion with different traditions: the Gestaltists (Bühler, Dessoir), German aesthetics (Lange, Utitz, Volkelt), the Graz School (Meinong, Witasek), phenomenology (Geiger, Husserl, Ingarden, Schapp), Polish aesthetics (Irzykowski) and, of course, the Lvov–Warsaw School (Lissa, Ossowski, Twardowski, Wallis-Walfisz, Tadeusz Witwicki). Admittedly, the contexts are varied, but two traditions seemed to be dominant: his references to the Brentanian tradition and the phenomenological heritage. The Brentanian line in his thought leads—through Twardowski and his students—to the theory of presentations as the basis of aesthetics. In turn, the phenomenological inspiration that came from Husserl and Ingarden covers the question of the ways of givenness (Gegebenheitsweisen) of the aesthetic object. Against this background, the aim of the present chapter is to discuss Blaustein’s aesthetics as a descriptive analysis of aesthetic experiences that are correlated with their object or objects. My ultimate task is to present his general model of aesthetic experience. I begin with the question of how Blaustein used descriptive psychology in his aesthetics. Next, I address the problem of understanding aesthetic objects. Before considering whether they are purely intentional or real, I analyze Blaustein’s a few exemplary descriptions of aesthetic experiences. Finally, I examine some detailed problems discussed by Blaustein, including the phenomena of perception, attitudes, the body, intersubjectivity, and judgments. In doing so, I attempt to present a model of aesthetic experience in Blaustein’s philosophy. (shrink)

In den letzten Jahrzehnten sind die Emotionen zu einem der zentralen Themen der Philosophie des Geistes geworden. Erstaunlich ist in diesem Kontext einer neuen Entdeckung der Gefühle, dass die frühen phänomenologischen Beiträge der ersten Schüler Husserls zu dem Thema in Vergessenheit geraten sind. Dabei können die Gefühlskonzeptionen und Analysen emotionaler Phänomene von Pfänder, Voigtländer, Haas, Geiger, Scheler, Stein, Walther, Kolnai, Ortega y Gasset wegen ihrer einzigartigen Präzision und Erfahrungsnähe die heutige Debatte entscheidend bereichern. In diesem Buch wird einerseits die (...) Rekonstruktion einer Theorie der Emotionen unternommen, welche implizit in den Texten der ersten Phänomenologen liegt. Andererseits werden systematische Antworten auf Fragen und Problemstellungen gegeben, welche die aktuelle Diskussion bestimmen. Was sind Emotionen? Inwiefern kann man von emotionaler Realität und Irrealität, Echtheit und Unechtheit sprechen? Kann es Emotionen über Fiktionen geben? Gibt es unterbewusste Emotionen? Welche Rolle spielen leibliche Aspekte? Was bedeutet es, dass Emotionen intentional sind? In welcher Beziehung stehen sie zu den Werten? Dies sind die Leitfragen des Buches. (shrink)

At first glance, Moritz Geiger’s reaction to Husserl’s Ideas I appears to be neither systematically articulated nor particularly original. Geiger talks about Husserl’s idealism in Ideas I in just a few passages from his book Die Wirklickheit der Wissenschaften und die Metaphysik, and in a short essay in praise of Alexander Pfänder, Alexander Pfänders Methodische Stellung. There, Geiger seems to follow a general line of criticism shared by several so-called early phenomenologists, and most fully articulated by Jean (...) Hering, Roman Ingarden, Theodor Celms and Max Scheler. In this paper I argue that Geiger’s reaction to Ideas I contains some well-developed and original contributions to phenomenological thought. In particular, I defend three theses. First, Geiger’s criticism of Husserl’s idealism is much more original and sophisticated than it at first appears, because it rests on a complex phenomenology of “attitudes” [Einstellungen]. Second, Geiger offers a unique account of phenomenology as a variation of “stance” [Haltung], rather than a variation of attitude. Third, Geiger points to an alternative kind of phenomenology, which I call certainty-based phenomenology as opposed to an evidence-based phenomenology. Elements of this certainty-based phenomenology can be found in thinkers such as Merleau-Ponty and Ricoeur, but many of their views are significantly anticipated by Geiger. (shrink)

If Einstein himself could not fully cope with his concept of light quanta, it is no wonder that his contemporaries would not enthusiastically rally behind it from the start either. The early reception of the concept of light quanta starts with initial skepticism by almost the entire scientific community (including many of Einstein’s strongest supporters, e.g., Max Planck and his pupil Max von Laue). Sect. 5.2 interprets the Compton effect 1922/23 as a watershed and Sect. 5.3 discusses the theory by (...) Niels Bohr, H.A. Kramers and John Slater (1924). This BKS theory was the last attempt at a quantum theory without energetically quantized photons—the correlation experiments by Walther Bothe and Hans Geiger (1924–25) refuted it. (shrink)

The academic debate of the early twentieth century witnessed resurging interest in the problem of reality as a foundational concern of philosophy and science. The advent of critical realism continued discursive tensions of the previous century. Oswald Külpe contributed to this revitalisation by defending inductive metaphysics as the proper methodology to engage with the problem. Alongside his efforts, Moritz Geiger and Max Scheler sought after alternatives beyond realism and idealism in philosophy but also beyond psychology of consciousness or unconscious (...) mechanisms of the soul. They did so on the basis of phenomenological considerations but also by continuing the traditions of philosophical psychology from the nineteenth century, rooting their ideas in the discourse on reality and approximating the standpoint of ideal-realism. The phenomenologists contemplated the consequences of this view for psychology but ultimately did not develop a complete psychological account, thus relinquishing the approach to the theoretical psychology of the future and its discourse on the problem of subject-matter. (shrink)

Das Kapitel Philosophie als Beruf skizziert die Stationen der frühen Biographie Karl Löwiths: Auf seine Münchner Jugendzeit als protestantisch getaufter Sohn jüdischer Eltern folgte nach dem Notabitur die freiwillige Meldung zum Kriegsdienst. 1915 geriet er in italienische Kriegsgefangenschaft und lernte im Süden seine ideelle Wahlheimat kennen. 1917 nach München zurückgekehrt, nahm er ein Studium der Biologie bei von Goebel und der Philosophie bei Geiger und Pfänder auf, das er in Freiburg bei Spemann, Husserl und Heidegger fortsetzen sollte. In diese (...) Zeit fielen seine Lektüren großer Autoren wie Schopenhauer und Nietzsche, sowie Kafka und Rilke, ferner prägende Begegnungen mit Vorbildern wie Max Weber, dessen Vortrag Wissenschaft als Beruf Löwith als Studienanfänger erlebte, oder Stefan George, in dessen Umkreis er sich zwischenzeitlich bewegte. In dieser Zeit prägte Löwith Fähigkeiten der Selbstreflexion und einen Hang zur Autobiographie aus, die sich vor allem in seiner literarischen Selbstbesinnung Fiala niedergeschlagen hat. Zu Heidegger baute Löwith in der Freiburger Zeit eine besondere Verbindung auf, aus der ein stets kritisches Lehrer-Schüler-Verhältnis erwuchs. In Absetzung zu Heideggers ‚Faktizität des Lebens‘ entwickelte Löwith einen eigenen hermeneutischen Interpretationsansatz zum Denken Nietzsches, der das Thema seiner Dissertation bildete. (shrink)

This paper offers an overview of certain key features of the accounts of emotion defended by the early phenomenologists. After briefly presenting the movement of early phenomenology and describing its historical context, I shall elaborate the main claims about the emotions defended by this group, articulating them through the following five topics: 1) the stratification of emotional life; 2) the qualitative aspect of emotional experience; 3) the foundation of the emotions in cognitive acts; 4) the intentionality of feeling and the (...) emotions; and 5) their moral dimension. The paper finishes with some concluding remarks about the significance of the early phenomenological discussion of the emotions for the debate on this topic in contemporary analytical philosophy. (shrink)

Kant announces that the Critique of the Power of Judgment will bring his entire critical enterprise to an end. But it is by no means agreed upon that it in fact does so and, if it does, how. In this book, Ido Geiger argues that a principal concern of the third Critique is completing the account of the transcendental conditions of empirical experience and knowledge. This includes both Kant's analysis of natural beauty and his discussion of teleological judgments of (...) organisms and of nature generally. Geiger's original reading of the third Critique shows that it forms a unified whole - and that it does in fact deliver the final part of Kant's transcendental undertaking. His book will be valuable to all who are interested in Kant's theory of the aesthetic and conceptual purposiveness of nature. (shrink)

The notion of aesthetic ideas is of great importance to Kant's thinking about art. Despite its importance, he says little about it. He characterizes aesthetic ideas as representations of the imagination and says that the gift of artistic genius is the inscrutable capacity to envision them. Furthermore, they are counterparts of rational ideas. Works of art thus sensibly present rational ideas; the pleasure they occasion is a consequence of the enriching process of reflection upon the wealth of content they sensibly (...) present. The purpose of this article is to ask whether all rational ideas have aesthetic ideas as counterparts, and so can be presented in art, or whether only some do and which. The answer should reveal what, for Kant, is the subject-matter of art. I argue that for Kant art is concerned with the range and variety of human freedom as well as with its highest fulfillment in morality. (shrink)

This paper draws on the ethics of care to investigate how citizens grappled with ethical tensions in the mundane practice of grocery shopping at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. We use this case to address the broader question of what it means ‘to care’ in the context of a crisis. Based on a qualitative longitudinal cross-country interview study, we find that the pandemic transformed ordinary shopping spaces into places fraught with a sense of fear and vulnerability. Being forced to (...) face one’s own vulnerability created an opportunity for individuals to relate to one another as significant others through a sense of “response-ability”, or the capacity of people to respond to ethical demands through situated ethical reasoning. We argue for a practical ethos of care in which seemingly small decisions such as how often to go shopping and how much to buy of a particular product serve as a means to relate to both specified and generalized others—and through this, ‘care with’ society. Our study contributes to displacing the continuing prevalence of an abstract and prescriptive morality in consumption ethics with a situated and affective politics of care. This vocabulary seems better suited to reflect on the myriad of small and unheroic care acts in times of crisis and beyond. (shrink)

This article outlines and compares current and proposed global institutional mechanisms to increase equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, focusing on their institutional and operational complementarities and overlaps. It specifically considers the World Health Organization's (WHO’s) COVAX (COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access) model as part of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) initiative, the WHO’s COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) initiative, the proposed TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Agreement) intellectual property waiver and other proposed WHO and World Trade Organization technology (...) transfer proposals. We argue that while various individual mechanisms each have their specific individual merits—and in some cases weaknesses—overall, many of these current and proposed mechanisms could be highly complementary if used together to deliver equitable global access to vaccines. Nonetheless, we also argue that there are risks posed by the proliferation of proposals in this context, including the potential to disperse stakeholder attention or to delay decisive action. Therefore, we argue that there is now a clear need for concerted global multilateral action to recognise the complementarities of specific models and to provide a pathway for collaboration in attaining global equitable access to vaccines. The institutional infrastructure or proposals to achieve this amply exist at this point in time—but much greater cooperation from industry and clear, decisive and coordinated action from states and international organisations are urgently needed. (shrink)

Kant's conception of moral agency is often charged with attributing no role to feelings. I suggest that respect is the effective force driving moral action. I then argue that four additional types of rational feelings are necessary conditions of moral agency: The affective inner life of moral agents deliberating how to act and reflecting on their deeds is rich and complex . To act morally we must turn our affective moral perception towards the ends of moral action: the welfare of (...) others ; and our own moral being . Feelings shape our particular moral acts . I tentatively suggest that the diversity of moral feelings might be as great as the range of our duties. (shrink)

The article defends three claims regarding the relation between the different formulas of the categorical imperative. On its prevailing reading, FUL gives different moral guidance than FH; left answered, this problem is an argument for adopting a competing perspective on FUL. The prohibitions and commands of the formulas should be taken to be extensionally the same; but FKE adds a dimension missing from the others, gained by uniting their perspectives, namely, bringing the variety of moral laws into systematic unity. The (...) grammatically ambiguous phrase inGMS, 4: 436.9–10 claims that FA alone unites the other formulas in itself. (shrink)

This essay traced the historical process by which essential elements of scientific advancement coalesced to form the system of American research universities. Initially, knowledge inspired by the scientific ethos relied on ad hoc organizations but had no grounding in educational institutions. Such a foundation emerged first in German universities and then inspired a handful of American universities. They, in turn, nurtured and incorporated a system of academic disciplines, producing a system of recognition for intellectual achievement which was incorporated into an (...) academic reward system. Universities had limited resources for advancing knowledge. After 1920, American foundations embraced the scientific ethos of advancing knowledge through basic research. Until 1945, the system of research universities was steeply hierarchical, as resources were disbursed according to academic potential and achievement. After the war, the federal provision of research funds greatly expanded the size and effectiveness of this system. The post-Sputnik explosion of all supporting resources created the mature system of American research universities and solidified a federal partnership for the advancement of knowledge. As research universities prospered, they sponsored social-behavioral subjects having social objectives. Polarization of the political environment after 2000 increasingly affected research universities and the university research system. The hegemony of the scientific ethos was progressively eroded in favor of the priority of social justice memes. When diversity was imposed on the hiring of academic personnel, it corrupted the reward system based on the scientific ethos. In 2025 the Trump Administration regarded universities as an enemy and explicitly sought to control them for its own political ends. The politicization of universities and American society, first by the Left and then by the Right, now threatens to compromise the enormous achievements of American science. (shrink)

Many of its students are first drawn to Kant's practical philosophy because it seems to promise a theory of morality both objective and practicable. Moral theory, as Kant conceives of it, must abst...

Kant claims that empirical laws of nature “carry with them an expression of necessity” (Kant, 1998 ; A159/B198). What precisely is this “expression of necessity” and what grounds it? The metaphysical necessitation approach asks “What are laws of nature for Kant?” It answers that, for Kant, empirical laws possess necessity and are grounded in the properties and causal powers essential to natural kinds. The epistemological systematization approach claims that empirical natures, kinds and causal laws are rightly viewed as necessitating in (...) virtue of the place they ideally take within an ultimate systematic conception of nature. The paper defends a hybrid transcendental-idealist approach to empirical necessity. It argues that Kant offers a transcendental deduction of the a priori principle of the systematic conceptual purposiveness of nature. In contrast to the systematization approach, this builds necessity into our most fundamental, conceptually articulated experience of nature. The approach can furthermore complement metaphysical necessitation accounts by showing that the commitment to necessitation follows from the metaphysical doctrine of transcendental idealism and the critical project of articulating the a priori transcendental conditions of experience. Recognizing the transcendental status of the principle of the systematic conceptual purposiveness of nature thus allows us to merge valuable insights of both the epistemological systematization and the metaphysical necessitation views. (shrink)

According to Korsgaard’s very influential interpretation, moral normativity follows from a commonly accepted conception of rational agency, namely, the capacity to set ends and pursue them or humanity. The paper argues that humanity is not the source of moral normativity. Taking the exercise of your freedom in pursuit of your ends to be justified commits you to acknowledging the equal claim of others to see themselves as justified in the pursuit of their ends. This entails the equal restriction of the (...) freedom of each to ensure maximal freedom for all. But this is precisely what Kant thinks of as the state of right. In contrast, the paper claims that the second formula of the categorical imperative commands making the humanity of rational beings who are assumed to possess the capacity to act morally or personality, into our end, precisely because they are assumed to possess this distinct rational capacity. (shrink)

In the Introduction to the Critique of the Power of Judgment, Kant claims that the Critique of Pure Reason accounted for the necessary conditions of experience and knowledge in general, but that it was not a complete transcendental account of the possibility of a particular empirical experience of objects and knowledge of empirical laws of nature. To fill this gap the third Critique puts forward, as an additional transcendental condition, the regulative principle of the purposiveness of nature. In this paper, (...) I will attempt to show how Kant’s account of pure aesthetic judgment can be read as articulating an aesthetic non-conceptual condition of the search for the conceptual order of nature and so as constituting an essential part of the account of the transcendental conditions of empirical experience and knowledge. (shrink)

Scholars and practitioners across domains are increasingly concerned with algorithmic transparency and opacity, interrogating the values and assumptions embedded in automated, black-boxed systems, particularly in user-generated content platforms. I report from an ethnography of infrastructure in Wikipedia to discuss an often understudied aspect of this topic: the local, contextual, learned expertise involved in participating in a highly automated social–technical environment. Today, the organizational culture of Wikipedia is deeply intertwined with various data-driven algorithmic systems, which Wikipedians rely on to help manage (...) and govern the “anyone can edit” encyclopedia at a massive scale. These bots, scripts, tools, plugins, and dashboards make Wikipedia more efficient for those who know how to work with them, but like all organizational culture, newcomers must learn them if they want to fully participate. I illustrate how cultural and organizational expertise is enacted around algorithmic agents by discussing two autoethnographic vignettes, which relate my personal experience as a veteran in Wikipedia. I present thick descriptions of how governance and gatekeeping practices are articulated through and in alignment with these automated infrastructures. Over the past 15 years, Wikipedian veterans and administrators have made specific decisions to support administrative and editorial workflows with automation in particular ways and not others. I use these cases of Wikipedia’s bot-supported bureaucracy to discuss several issues in the fields of critical algorithms studies; critical data studies; and fairness, accountability, and transparency in machine learning—most principally arguing that scholarship and practice must go beyond trying to “open up the black box” of such systems and also examine sociocultural processes like newcomer socialization. (shrink)

McDowell’s “Avoiding the Myth of the Given” (2008, 2009) attempts to reconcile two claims: 1) what we most fundamentally experience is a fundamental level of invariable simple objects and their sensible properties; experience of these objects and properties is the ultimate ground of our knowledge of the world; 2) experience is through-and-through conceptually structured. This leads McDowell to endorsing the incoherent notion of intuitional content – necessary and thus irrevisable basic empirical conceptually structured contents or empirical categories. The notion requires (...) the necessity and irrevisability of purely formal concepts and the on-going responsiveness to experience of empirical concepts. This reveals a dilemma: If the fundamental objects of experience are invariable then they cannot have empirically conceptual form; for revisability is a mark of the empirically conceptual. But purely formal concepts cannot give us the fundamental empirical structure of the world. The dilemma forces us to choose between claiming that the fundamental objects of experience are invariable and claiming that they are conceptually formed. I conclude by briefly describing how Kant successfully faces the challenge of accounting for the most fundamental invariable level of objects of experience without yielding to the myth of the given. (shrink)

Theodor Geigers Studie ist eine gesellschafts- und geistesgeschichtliche Einführung in einen zentralen philosophischen und soziologischen Grundbegriff. Sie gibt eine höchst originelle Antwort auf die alte Grundfrage der Gesellschaft: Welchen sozialen Normen und Werten sollte das menschliche Zusammenleben und Zusammenarbeiten unterliegen?

To find more information on Rowman & Littlefield titles, please visit us at www.rowmanlittlefield.com.

This study examined accounting student responses to academic and accounting/business ethical vignettes and examined if gender or formal training in ethics affected their responses. The study also controlled for a student's tendency to respond in a socially desirable manner by including a social desirability response bias instrument as part of the research materials. The results indicate no general differences in responses between the students with and without formal ethical training, or between male and female students. However, comparisons between the academic (...) and accounting/business vignettes revealed that although students perceived the unethical actions discussed in the cases similarly, they indicated they would be more likely to engage in the unethical actions in the accounting/business cases compared to the academic dilemmas. (shrink)

In this second part of his lecture, Geiger deals with the question of empathy for non-human entities, like various kinds of objects. Again, Geiger differentiates between various questions that are usually mixed together in the relevant literature. Thus, he distinguishes the question of fact from the psychological theories about possible mechanisms responsible for this phenomenon. In the last part there is an interesting debate showing how different is the approach between experimenters and philosophers. In his conclusion, Geiger (...) stresses again that conceptual clarification is needed in order to avoid confusion in research designs. Finally, two commentaries emphasize how much empathy could be important in the context of psychiatry. (shrink)

The recent sociobiology debate has raised fundamental and previously unresolved conceptual problems. Evolutionary Instability - Logical and Material Aspects of a Unified Theory of Biosocial Evolution - offers ap- proaches for their solution. The scientific applications comprise the dynamics and evolutionary instability of hierarchically organized systems, especially systems of interacting behavioural phenotypes in animals and man. The technical apparatus is thoroughly explained in intuitive terms within the text, and illustrated by numerous familiar examples and graphical representations, supplemented by an informal (...) summary and discussion. The analyses offer new theoretical perspectives to such diverse fields as philosophy of science, evolutionary biology, general system theory and sociology. (shrink)

The paper presents an example of unified theory bearing interest from both a historical and systematic point of view. The example is chosen from evolutionary population genetics (neo-Darwinian synthetic theory). It exhibits various aspects of theoretical change in science that have been shown in Part I (Geiger, 1988) to be characteristic of syntheses of theories.

The paper presents an example of unified theory bearing interest from both a historical and systematic point of view. The example is chosen from evolutionary population genetics (neo-Darwinian synthetic theory). It exhibits various aspects of theoretical change in science that have been shown in Part I (Geiger, 1988) to be characteristic of syntheses of theories.

Martin Sticker's discussion of the common moral agent contains much that I find insightful, true and significant. As a response to his paper, I focus on two important issues that nevertheless separate us: Sticker claims that knowing our duty can be mere passive awareness and that it indeed is passive as awareness of the special status of humanity. I deny that knowing our duty is ever passive. He further claims that the common universalization test is the paradigmatic way active agents (...) acquire moral knowledge. I argue that Sticker appears to construe universalization as a formal test that presupposes no moral knowledge and that so construed the test cannot serve for acquiring moral knowledge. (shrink)

Recently McCuddy and Peery (1996) have suggested that business students may not respond the same way to “unfamiliar” business ethical dilemmas as they would to more “familiar” academic ethical dilemmas. The purpose of this study was to present the same students with both “unfamiliar” business dilemmas as well as possibly more “familiar” academic dilemmas in order to examine this issue. Findings of the study revealed that students did not exhibit different perceptions of the unethical actions performed in the academic and (...) accounting/business ethical vignettes. However, the students indicated that both they and their peers would be more likely to act unethically to resolve the dilemmas in the accounting/business cases than in the academic cases. This finding is troubling in that it suggests that students either feel less compelled to act ethically in business, or that they perceive that ethical standards in the business world are generally low when compared to their current educational environment. In addition, the students in the study maintained the same “halo effect” (i.e., the difference between an individual's perception of their likelihood of performing an unethical action compared to their perception of their peers' likelihood to perform the same unethical action) across the two types of ethical dilemma. (shrink)