Dieses Kapitel zielt darauf ab, eine aufschlussreiche Untersuchung von standortbasierten Gig-Arbeiten in Entwicklungswirtschaften zu liefern, wobei der Fokus auf den Herausforderungen liegt, denen sich Arbeiter, Plattformanbieter und politische Entscheidungsträger gegenübersehen, sowie auf den potenziellen Chancen, die diese Form der Beschäftigung bietet. Die Forscher führten eine umfangreiche Literaturübersicht durch, die die Überprüfung von 76 begutachteten Fachartikeln und offiziellen Berichten beinhaltete. Die Überprüfungen offenbaren mehrere bedeutende Herausforderungen, denen sich Gig-Arbeiter in Entwicklungswirtschaften gegenübersehen, wie zum Beispiel begrenzter Zugang zu sozialem Schutz, fehlender Zugang (...) zu Technologie, unsichere Einkommensströme, Mangel an Arbeitnehmerrechten, Bedenken hinsichtlich der beruflichen Gesundheit und Sicherheit und potenzielle Ausbeutung. Vorteile wie wirtschaftliche Inklusion, Zugang zu globalen Märkten, Unternehmertumsmöglichkeiten, Einkommenserzeugung, Flexibilität und Arbeitsplatzschaffung werden ebenfalls festgestellt. Angesichts dieser Herausforderungen empfiehlt das Kapitel die Notwendigkeit fairer Arbeitsbedingungen und Mechanismen zur Streitbeilegung durch Gesetzgebung. Durch das Bereitstellen eines klaren Verständnisses der Herausforderungen und Chancen, die mit dieser Form der Beschäftigung verbunden sind, rüstet das Kapitel politische Entscheidungsträger, Plattformanbieter und Arbeiter mit wertvollen Erkenntnissen für informierte Entscheidungsfindung aus und gestaltet die Zukunft der Gig-Arbeit in einer Weise, die Fairness und Nachhaltigkeit auf dem Arbeitsmarkt von Entwicklungswirtschaften fördert. (shrink)

This chapter aims to provide an insightful examination of location-based gig work in developing economies, focusing on the challenges faced by workers, platform providers, and policymakers and the potential opportunities that this form of employment presents. The researchers conducted an extensive literature review, which involved reviewing 76 refereed journal articles and official reports. The reviews reveal several significant challenges faced by gig workers in developing economies, such as limited access to social protection, lack of access to technology, uncertain income streams, (...) lack of labour rights, concerns regarding occupational health and safety, and potential exploitation. Benefits such as economic inclusion, access to global markets, entrepreneurship opportunities, income generation, flexibility, and job creation are also noted. In light of these challenges, the chapter recommends the need for fair working conditions and mechanisms for dispute resolution through legislation. By providing a clear understanding of the challenges and opportunities associated with this form of employment, the chapter equips policymakers, platform providers, and workers with valuable insights for informed decision-making and shapes the future of gig work in a way that promotes fairness and sustainability in the labour market of developing economies. (shrink)

This literature-based study explores the potential of reimagining public service delivery in Africa, specifically focusing on Zimbabwe. It posits that embracing human-centric leadership is key to revitalising public institutions and fostering improved service delivery outcomes across the continent. Drawing upon established scholarly works and relevant case studies, the study dissects the limitations of the current bureaucratic and fragmented approaches to public service prevalent in many African countries. It then proposes a theoretical framework for human-centric leadership within the Zimbabwean context, emphasising (...) core principles like empathy, responsiveness, accountability, and active citizen engagement. This framework champions servant leadership, collaborative problem-solving with citizens, and the strategic utilisation of technology to bolster transparency and efficiency. By synthesising existing academic knowledge, best practices from other countries, and insights gleaned from Zimbabwe’s public sector stakeholders, the study culminates in a roadmap for implementing the proposed framework. It advocates for fostering a culture of human-centric leadership within Zimbabwe’s public service, with the goal of enhancing service delivery and fostering better outcomes for its citizens. This study proposes a novel human-centric leadership framework for Zimbabwe’s public service, aiming to revitalise institutions and improve service delivery through empathy, responsiveness, and citizen engagement. (shrink)

With the recent advancements in scientific comprehension of genetics and the decipherment of complex techniques for editing human genomes, liberal eugenics—eugenic ideal premised on the liberal values of autonomy and pluralism that leaves reproductive choices to parents rather than anachronistic statist authoritarian interventions—has inevitably become a polarising conundrum in contemporary liberal societies as to its utility and destructiveness. Focusing on one species of liberal eugenics—namely, genome editing interventions—I contend that liberal eugenics could be harmful—harm herein construed as that which undermines (...) the salient liberal values of equality, autonomy, and pluralism—since it is itself antithetical to the bases of the liberal society. This contention is based upon three premises: first, that individuals are rather seldom rational decision-makers such that leaving all reproductive choices to the whims of individual parents would be immensely counterproductive to future offspring’s right to open future; second, that liberal eugenics—much like its authoritarian antecedent—could intersect with myriad identities, including race, class, sex, disability, and sexual orientation in ways that might exacerbate social divisions, marginalise different groups, and engender homogeneity; and third, that it undermines individual autonomy of the future person as a member of the liberal community, particularly if their capacities and abilities are tailored to fit parents’ specific life projects and putatively reasonable conceptions of the good. The underscored potential malaises of liberal eugenics should, I argue, be discursively negotiated between parents and the state via the development of robust general laws that regulate heritable genome editing interventions to ensure that the welfare of the future persons is prioritised and that the liberal commitment to autonomy is immune to antiliberal perversions. (shrink)

Source: Author: Uzoamaka S. Chigbu, Chijindu Promise Ubah, Ezeji E. Chigbu The level of bank development has a determinant effect on the growth potentials of a developing economy. In response, this study examined the impact of banking sector development on foreign investment inflows in the West African countries of Nigeria and Ghana. The study relied on secondary data for analysis and made use of multiple regression technique. However, to ensure the authenticity of our result, Augmented Dickey-Fuller unit root test and (...) Johansen Cointegration techniques were respectively employed to test for the presence unit root and long-run equilibrium relationship in the exogenous variables. Additionally, causal relationships were tested with Granger Causality. It was revealed that banking sector development has a significant influence on foreign investment inflows in the two West African countries. Specifically, domestic credit to private sector and bank deposit rate has significant influence on foreign investment inflows in both countries. Whereas domestic credit to private sector is directly related to the dependent variable in Ghana, it is related inversely in Nigeria. It was also discovered that bank lending rate is significantly and positively related to foreign investment in Ghana. Intermediation efficiency and profitability of banks should be improved by enhancing the capital structure and adopting the appropriate lending rate especially in Nigeria as measures to attract more inflows of foreign investment in both countries. ]]>. (shrink)

The informed consent process is a mandatory requirement for surgical procedures that enables patients to exercise autonomy and make informed decisions concerning their medical care, fully aware of the consequences. However, emerging evidence suggests inconsistent adherence to this requirement. This study investigated patients’ and next-of-kins perspectives and experiences of the informed consent process following the completion of a surgical procedure. Using a qualitative approach, patients and next-of-kins who had consented or offered proxy consent on behalf of a patient to undergo (...) surgical procedures at a teaching hospital’s surgical departments in Ghana were purposively recruited. We audio-recorded and transcribed 30 semi-structured interviews with 15 patients and 15 next-of-kins. Two members of the team conducted an independent thematic analysis of the data, guided by Braun and Clarke’s six-step approach. The data analysis generated four key themes related to the context, key elements, influencing factors, perceptions, and experiences of the informed consent process. The informed consent process took place in varied hospital settings, largely in the presence of next-of-kins and typically facilitated by a team of medical professionals, under private conditions where possible. Family opinion, doctors’ paternalism and trust in the doctor’s expertise seemed to be major factors that influenced the decision-making process. However, when conflicts emerged, the patient’s choice and best interest remained paramount in the final decision. The consent process often involved discussions regarding the medical condition, treatment options, and potential risks; participant experiences of these deliberations showed variability. Issues of time constraints, poor doctor-client communication, and language barriers often complicated the informed consent experience. Patient experiences of the informed consent process varied, which points to the importance of standardized guidelines and a more patient-centered approach. This approach should encourage continued collaboration and effective communication between medical professionals and patients/next-of-kins, while upholding the patient’s right to make an informed surgical decision. (shrink)

I first distinguish promises with positive sexual content (e.g., promises to perform sexual acts) and promises with negative sexual content (e.g., promises to refrain from sexual acts—as one does when making monogamy promises). I argue that sexual content—even positive sexual content—does not cause a promise to misfire. However, the content of some successful promises is such that a promisee ought not to accept the promise, and, if she does accept, she ought then to release (...) her promisor from the promise. I argue that both positive and negative sexual promises have content of this kind. (shrink)

Deeply rooted structures of racism, ableism, misogyny, ageism, and transphobia hurt great numbers of people, exposing them to intolerance, economic exclusion, and physical harm around the globe. Billions of land animals suffer and die annually in concentrated feeding operations and slaughterhouses. Our planet and all who live here are in perilous straights as the climate changes. In the face of such grievous problems, people who want to find positive ways to respond often grapple with difficult questions about how to make (...) a difference. Effective Altruism has arisen as an attempt to help answer these questions, encouraging people to give as much money as they can in the most effective ways to address human and animal suffering. But the Effective Altruists’ answers support some of the very social structures that cause suffering, undermining its efforts to “do the most good.” The Good It Promises, The Harm It Does is the first book-length critique of Effective Altruism. It brings together a diverse group of activists and scholars to explore Effective Altruism’s failure to meaningfully address forms of human and animal suffering. (shrink)

Emerging infectious diseases such as Ebola, Hendra, SARS, West Nile, Hepatitis E and avian influenza have led to a renewed recognition of how diseases in human beings, wildlife and livestock are interlinked. The changing prevalence and spread of such infections are largely determined by human activities and changes in environment and climate—where the latter are often also caused by human activities. Since the beginning of the 21st century, these insights have been brought together under the heading of OneHealth—a concept that (...) calls for interdisciplinary collaboration between various sciences as well as professional practices to promote and protect the health of human and non-human animals and the natural environment. Just as insights from public health have led to a broadened focus for health policy and medical care, from treating individual patients to protecting and promoting population health, OneHealth calls for an even broader perspective, including a concern for the environment and animals, and for social-cultural factors that affect human, animal and environmental health. OneHealth not only covers collaborative work to understand and control zoonotic diseases, but also other ways in which interactions between animals, plants and humans may positively or negatively impact on each other’s health. Thus, studies in veterinary medicine and environmental sciences may lead to new insights in human medicine, and vice versa. Acknowledgment of the links between environmental, animal and social health is of course not a novel insight. Hippocrates already pointed to the importance of a clean environment as a requirement for good health; the early public health movements emphasized hygienic living conditions including good-quality housing, sewage systems and clean air and water; and the founders of modern medicine such as William Osler and Rudolf Virchow promoted …. (shrink)

The Rashomon set of equally-good models promises less discriminatory algorithms, reduced outcome homogenization, and fairer decisions through model ensembles or reconciliation. However, we argue from the perspective of allocation multiplicity that these promises may remain unfulfilled. When there are more qualified candidates than resources available, many different allocations of scarce resources can achieve the same utility. This space of equal-utility allocations may not be faithfully reflected by the Rashomon set, as we show in a case study of healthcare (...) allocations. We attribute these unfulfilled promises to several factors: limitations in empirical methods for sampling from the Rashomon set, the standard practice of deterministically selecting individuals with the lowest risk, and structural biases that cause all equally-good models to view some qualified individuals as inherently risky. (shrink)

Codes of medical ethics (codes) are part of a longstanding tradition in which physicians publicly state their core values and commitments to patients, peers, and the public. However, codes are not static. Using the historical evolution of the Canadian Medical Association's Code of Ethics as an illustrative case, we argue that codes are living, socio-historically situated documents that comprise a mix of prescriptive and aspirational content. Reflecting their socio-historical situation, we can expect the upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic to prompt (...) calls to revise codes. Indeed, Alex John London has argued in favour of specific modifications to the World Medical Association's International Code of Medical Ethics (which has since been revised) in light of moral and scientific failures that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. Responding to London, we address the more general question: should codes be modified to reflect lessons drawn from the COVID-19 pandemic or future such upheavals? We caution that codes face limitations as instruments of policy change because they are inherently interpretive and ‘multivocal’, that is, they usually underdetermine or provide more than one answer to the question, ‘What should I do now?’ Nonetheless, as both prescriptive and aspirational documents, codes also serve as tools for reflection and deliberation—collective practices that are necessary to engaging with and addressing the moral and scientific uncertainties inherent to medicine. (shrink)

Increasing concerns for climate change call for radical changes in food systems. There is a need to pay more attention to the entangled changes in technological development, food production, as well as consumption and consumer demand. Consumer and market interest in alternative meat and milk products—such as plant based milk, plant protein products and cultured meat and milk—is increasing. At the same time, statistics do not show a decrease in meat consumption. Yet alternatives have been suggested to have great transitional (...) potential, appealing to different consumer segments, diets, and identities. We review 123 social scientific journal articles on cell-based and plant-based meat and milk alternatives to understand how the positioning of alternatives as both same and different in relation to animal-based products influences their role within the protein transition. We position the existing literature into three themes: promissory narratives and tensions on markets, consumer preferences, attitudes, and behavioral change policies, and the politics and ethics of the alternatives. Based on our analysis of the literature, we suggest that more research is needed to understand the broader ethical impacts of the re-imagination of the food system inherent in meat and milk alternatives. There is also a need to direct more attention to the impacts of meat and milk alternatives to the practices of agricultural practices and food production at the farm-level. A closer examination of these research gaps can contribute to a better understanding of the transformative potential of alternatives on a systemic level. (shrink)

A worrying trend of autocratization that has been spreading globally in recent years, has thrust forward a new wave of appeals for deliberative and participatory democracy as a remedy for the crisis. With a few exceptions, the majority of participatory and deliberative institutions were implemented in stable democracies. The efforts to institutionalize participatory and deliberative models are almost completely absent in Serbia and other Western Balkan countries. Yet, there has been a trend of citizen mobilization in the form of social (...) movements and local civic initiatives, which are both a symptom of unresponsive and quite openly authoritarian institutions, as well as a potential pathway to democratization. The pace and scope of these developments in the undemocratic societies of the Western Balkan region, in terms of both bottom up and top-down democratic experimentation, call for a better understanding of their internal dynamics, and their social and political impact. Responding to this need, the articles in the special issue focus on social movement mobilizations and deliberative experimentation. To begin with, our introductory article focuses particularly on understanding the possible role deliberative institutions could have in hybrid regimes. It looks at the first two cases of deliberative mini publics (DMPs) ever organized in Serbia, analyzing their rationale, specific design, implementation, as well as considering the possible role deliberative institutions could play in the hybrid regime of Serbia. (shrink)

In the Western cultural imaginaries the monstrous is defined – following Aristotelian categorisations – by its excess, deficiency or displacement of organic matter. These characteristics come to the fore in the field of bioart: a current in contemporary art that involves the use of biological materials (various kinds of soma: cells, tissues, organisms), and scientific procedures, technologies, protocols, and tools. Bioartistic projects and objects not only challenge the conventional ideas of embodiment and bodily boundaries, but also explore the relation between (...) the living and non-living, organic and inorganic, human and nonhuman, as well as various thresholds of the living. -/- By looking at select bioartworks, this paper argues that the analysed projects offer a different ontology of life. More specifically, they expose life as uncontainable, that is, as a power of differentiation that traverses the divide between the living and non-living, organic and inorganic, human and nonhuman, and, ultimately, life and death. In this way, they draw attention to excess, processuality and multiplicity at the very core of life itself. Thus understood, life always already surpasses preconceived material and conceptual limits. -/- Finally, while taking Deleuzian feminisms and new materialism as its theoretical ground, the paper suggests that such a revision of the ontology of life may mobilise future conceptualisations of ethics that evade the anthropocentric logic dominant in the humanities and social sciences. (shrink)

Psychedelic drugs have been used for centuries all around the world for recreational purposes and in religious and healing practices as means to mystical experiences that lead to healing, insight a...

People who make graveside promises consider themselves bound by them, which raises the question of whether a promise can morally obligate a promisor directly to a promisee who cannot acknowledge the promise. I show that it can by using the theoretical framework provided by “transaction accounts” of promising. Paradigmatically, these accounts maintain that the creation of a promissory obligation requires that the promisee consent to the promise. I extend these accounts to capture promises made by proxy and self- (...) class='Hi'>promises, and conclude that we can make promises to absent promisees when we bear responsibility for their moral and personal development. (shrink)

Reductionism as a scientific methodology has been extraordinarily successful in biology. However, recent developments in molecular biology have shown that reductionism is seriously inadequate in dealing with the mind-boggling complexity of integrated biological systems. This title presents an appropriate balance between science and philosophy and covers traditional philosophical treatments of reductionism as well as the benefits and shortcomings of reductionism in particular areas of science. Discussing the issue of reductionism in the practice of medicine it takes into account the holistic (...) and integrative aspects that require the context of the patient in his biological and psychological entirety. The emerging picture is that what first seems like hopeless disagreements turn out to be differences in emphasis. Although genes play an important role in biology, the focus on genetics and genomics has often been misleading. The consensus view leads to pluralism: both reductionst methods and a more integrative approach to biological complexity are required, depending on the questions that are asked. * An even balance of contributions from scientists and philosophers of science - representing a unique interchange between both communities interested in reductionism. (shrink)

The effort to recapture the lost spirit of revolution must, to a certain extent, consist in the attempt at thinking together and combining meaningfully what our present vocabulary presents to us in terms of opposition and contradiction. Hannah Arendt, On Revolution, 225-26 Once again we find the paradox dominating the whole of social action: freedom exists because society does not achieve constitution as a structural objective order; but any social action tends towards the constitution of that impossible object, and thus (...) towards the elimination of the conditions of liberty itself. Ernesto Laclau, New Reflections on the Revolution of Our Time, 44 Have you ever asked yourselves sufficiently how much the erection of every ideal on earth has?... If a temple is to be erected a temple must be destroyed: that is the law—let anyone who can show me a case in which it is not fulfilled! Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals, Second Essay, sec. 24. (shrink)

The relatively new discipline of risk analysis promises to provide objective guidance in some of the most controversial issues in modern high‐technology societies. Four conditions are discussed that must be satisfied for this promise to be fulfilled. Since none of these conditions is satisfied, risk analysis does not keep its promise. In its attempts to reduce genuinely political issues to technocratic calculations, it neglects many of the factors that should influence decisions on risk acceptance. A list of tentative guidelines (...) is given for numerical decision support that encourages democratic decision‐making instead of trying to evade it. (shrink)

1. Artificial Intelligence is an ambiguous umbrella term. Until today there is no uniform definition of AI and the term carries several meanings. As exemplary, I will give two definitions of AI tha...

Neuroscience has been proposed for use in the legal system for purposes of mind reading, assessment of responsibility, and prediction of misconduct. Each of these uses has both promises and perils, and each raises issues regarding the admissibility of neuroscientific evidence.

Preimplantation genetic testing for polygenic disorders (PGT-P) has been commercially available since 2019. PGT-P makes use of polygenic risk scores for conditions which are multifactorial and are significantly influenced by environmental and lifestyle factors. If current predictions are accurate, then absolute risk reductions range from about 0.02% to 10.1%, meaning that between 10 and 5,000 in vitro fertilization patients would need to be tested with PGT-P to prevent one offspring from becoming affected in the future, depending on the condition and (...) the number of embryos available. Survey and interview data reveal that patients and the public have largely favorable views regarding the use of PGT-P for disease prevention; however, clinicians and professional organizations have many reservations. The use of PGT-P raises multiple social and ethical concerns including the need for adequate counseling, the setting of realistic expectations, the application of distributive justice, the impact of environmental and social determinants of health, and the potential exacerbation of health inequities. Clinicians expressed significant concerns relating to the cost of PGT-P, the potential time-consuming counseling for reproductive endocrinologists and genetic counselors, the intentional creation of supernumerary embryos, and patients’ unrealistic expectations regarding “healthiest disease-free” embryos. Furthermore, current evidence lacks long-term outcome data and generalizability. Prior to offering PGT-P to patients, additional clinical validation studies are needed. Also, ethical and social considerations raised by PGT-P should be carefully delineated. Systemic practices to increase equitable access to unbiased genetic counseling and reproductive services would be desirable prior to the ethical implementation of PGT-P. (shrink)

The paper compares the two remarkably similar and yet strikingly different theories of promises developed by Adolf Reinach and Margaret Gilbert. Margaret Gilbert claims that promises can be explained in terms of joint commitments borne by the promisor and the promisee to the decision that the promisor will φ. On this view, the promisor's obligation and the promisee's claim are grounded in the commitment they have jointly entered. By contrast, Adolf Reinach submits that promises do not have (...) substantial explanation and that they generate promissory obligation and claim in virtue of their nature. By using insights from Reinach's theory, this paper argues that Gilbert's account of promises is to be rejected and suggests abandoning the idea that progress in our understanding of promises requires submitting them to substantial explanations. (shrink)

In response to Morningstar’s release of carbon risk (CR) scores in May 2018, (environmentally) sustainable mutual funds in the U.S. showed a greater reduction in their portfolio CR relative to conventional funds. The observed causal impact of this third-party disclosure is consistent with the funds’ primary investment objectives. Differences in fund names, potentially driven by marketing considerations, appear irrelevant to the behavior of sustainable funds. Conventional funds that are signatories to the UN’s Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) or those with (...) secondary sustainability mandates behave more like other conventional funds rather than sustainable funds. These funds appear relatively insensitive to disclosures as their sustainability considerations are superseded by other primary investment criteria. Fiduciary and legal bonding influences fund managers’ response to sustainability disclosures. Sustainable funds lower their CR score by reducing exposure to fossil fuels, not by increasing exposure to renewables. (shrink)

Phenomenology holds much potential to make meaningful contributions to research on sport. In this paper, I argue that concepts such as equipment, habit and readiness-at-hand will help to uncover heretofore unexamined strands of athletic embodiment. Through an examination of the work of Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Hubert Dreyfus I take some initial steps towards outlining not only the promises of phenomenology for the study of sport, but also what such an undertaking might entail. In conclusion I (...) highlight the consequences for sport research that flow from phenomenology and offer suggestions for how sport scholarship might benefit from its incisive manner of discerning skilled coping. (shrink)

Alyssa Lowery ABSTRACT: Stoicism’s tremendous recent popularity provides an opportunity to update the tradition for a contemporary audience. In this paper, I review one such update: Stoicism’s conception as a ‘big tent,’ first as depicted by two prominent figures in contemporary Stoicism – Ryan Holiday and Massimo Pigliucci – then how it fares in light ….

Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Volume 104, Issue 1, Page 150-170, January 2022.

Understanding human behaviour involves "why"'s as well as "how"'s. Rational people have good reasons for acting, but it can be hard to find out what these were and how they worked. In this Note, we discuss a few ways in which actions, preferences, and expectations are intermingled. This mixture is especially clear with the well-known solution procedure for extensive games called 'Backward Induction'. In particular, we discuss three scenarios for analyzing behaviour in a game. One can rationalize given moves as (...) revealing agents' preferences, one can also rationalize them as revealing agents' beliefs about others, but one can also change a predicted pattern of behaviour by making promises. All three scenarios transform given games to new ones, and we prove some results about their scope. A more general view of relevant game transformations would involve dynamic and epistemic game logics. Finally, our analysis describes and disentangles matters: but it will not tell you what to do! (shrink)

Any appeal to a right raises the question of a corresponding duty. If one bears a right, then who bears the duty to respect, protect, and enforce that right? In this essay, I contend that human rights claims need not be oriented to or reliant on the state. I start from and conclude with lessons from the 2016 protests at Standing Rock. Standing Rock, I argue, exemplifies critical theory that organizes communities through the language of human rights.

This article discusses the ways in which nineteenth-century geodesists reflected on precision as an epistemic virtue in their measurement practice. Physical geodesy is often understood as a quintessential nineteenth-century precision science, stimulating advances in instrument making and statistics, and generating incredible quantities of data. Throughout most of the nineteenth century, geodesists indeed pursued their most prestigious research problem – the exact determination of the earth’s polar flattening – along those lines. Treating measurement errors as random, they assumed that remaining discordances (...) could be overcome by manufacturing better instruments and extending statistical analysis to a larger amount of data. In the second half of the nineteenth century, however, several German geodesists developed sophisticated methodological critiques of their discipline, in which they diagnosed a too-narrow focus on precision among their peers. On their account, geodesists urgently needed to identify and anticipate the causes of the remaining measurement errors that arose from the earth’s little understood interior constitution. While mostly overlooked in the literature, these critiques paved the way for many empirical successes in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century geodesy, including the first convergent measurements of the earth’s polar flattening. (shrink)

In 2017 a clock from the collection of the Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon in Dresden was dismantled. This clock had been made around 1767 by Johann Gottfried Köhler (1745–1800), who was then in...

: Hume's account of the virtue of fidelity to promises contains two surprising claims: 1) Any analysis of fidelity that treats it as a natural (nonconventional) virtue is incorrect because it entails that in promising we perform a "peculiar act of the mind," an act of creating obligation by willing oneself to be obligated. No such act is possible. 2) Though the obligation of promises depends upon social convention, not on such a mental act, we nonetheless "feign" that (...) whenever someone promises he performs such an act. This paper explains both in light of the philosophical questions about promising that lie behind Hume's investigation, his virtue theory, and the general difficulties he believes we face trying to understand virtues that are in fact artificial in terms of our common-sense, natural conception of virtue. It extracts a lesson for contemporary virtue ethics about the motive of duty. (shrink)

In this chapter, we analyze the current production of bioartefacts derived from synthetic biology, and their ethical and societal consequences. In addition to the socio-economic problems and growing technological gap between North and South, synthetic biology raises new environmental and biological risks, triggering a global challenge. Such risks are also beginning to worry some scientists, philosophers and civil society organizations, because the use of new synthesized organisms extends their long-term effects and increases the risk of bioterrorism and ‘bioerrorism’. However, the (...) principal and most profound implications of synthetic biology will occur in the global economy, in biomedical and pharmaceutical research, and in the food and biofuels industries, fomenting and intensifying social and ethical controversies regarding the development of biotechnology, its capacity to determine the future of technological civilization, and its essential relationship with all the ecosystems on Earth. (shrink)

As a contribution to the Common Knowledge symposium “Whatever Happened to Richard Rorty?,” this essay elucidates how Isabelle Stengers's signature idea of an “ecology of practices” offers a way to establish claims to expertise and—within limits that are, in effect, the limits of specific scientific practices—claims of authority within science that Rorty would have denied. The problems facing Rorty's understanding of science also imperil his vision of a society admirably seeking to realize what he calls “social hope.” Once again, Stengers's (...) ecology of practices, together with her cosmopolitical perspective, offers grounds for questioning Rorty's utopian belief that endless conversation should lead to continual expansion of the “we” who constitute liberal society. Her idea also provides tools for engaging, in mutually respectful and sensitive encounters that reopen prospects for social hope, the multiplicity of voices, perspectives, and practices of the “others” who have been excluded from liberal society. (shrink)

In this chapter shows how Sándor Ferenczi built on Freud’s theory and technique while expanding it into an “active treatment” that combined working through in the therapeutic relationship in-session with behavioral experiments and “exposures” outside of sessions—interventions approved of by Freud. The chapter discusses two cases from Ferenczi’s posthumous Clinical Diary that were surprisingly preoccupied with race and trauma—an element of his work that has received little commentary in the literature. The cases show how Ferenczi addressed how perpetrators “cannibalize” their (...) victims’ suffering to relieve their own, and extended this theory to understand racism as a cannibalistic enjoyment for the perpetrator. However, Ferenczi struggled to think beyond a “two-person” model of the therapeutic relationship, hobbling his ability to address the social in his clinical work—a difficulty that arguably persists in relational theory today (see Layton in De-idealizing relational theory, Routledge, pp. 209‒234). Foregrounding Lacan and Fanon’s positions, it can be argued that a third term is needed beyond the two-person relation—the social as it “slips through” speech. (shrink)

The article reviews structural (organic, combinational and cumulative) threats resulting from the expansion and increase in the complexity of technical systems and the contemporary conditions for the operations of such systems and the introduction of technical innovation. Given the growing social aversion to the proximity of technical instalations and industrial products or the growing distructs of scientific safety certificates, the author of the article seeks the answer to a question of whether social fears of harmful effects of technical factors are (...) justified. Based on a theoretical analyses of technical strategies used in safety assessment in selected domains of technical activity, the author of the article demonstrates that some threats from technical factors are cognitively elusive to normal science. The causes are indicated by cognitive limitations, errors, deficienses and abuses that undeterminine the credibiity of scientific safety certificates and prompt the thourough revision of previous cognitive strategies. The author postulates replacing the expert-laboratory procedures of normal science with post-normal models based on agreements with risk exposed persons. (shrink)