bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Axiological Dimension of Tolerance
Authors: Aiftinca Marin
Published: November 2019

I contend that tolerance is not the expression of a simple attitude, but constitutes a moral value which penetrates all spheres of social life. My argument assumes that globalization is a fundamental tendency of the contemporary world and that the ideal of such a world cannot be enacted without tolerance. After identifying the constituent elements of this value and its conditions of functioning, we conclude that any reconstruction of human society from the globalization point of view presumes tolerance as a fundamental factor. Functional tolerance assumes that everyone enjoys similar education in the spirit of tolerance at any age and any level. The future of humanity depends upon such a solution in the face of current woes.
Justifying Philosophy and Paideia in the Modern World
Authors: Painter Mark
Published: November 2019

If Paideia means education in the classical sense, that is, education of the whole person, then authentically justifying such education in the modern world is extremely problematic. We are first drawn to practical defenses of a liberal education, that it is in itself of service and useful, both to society and to the individual. However, a practical defense of Paideia in the classical sense simply comes across as feeble and even a bit desperate (that is, if it escapes sounding pompous) and every savvy student knows it. Far better, it seems, to take courses aimed at general problem solving, or at honing critical thinking skills, or at developing socio-political sophistication, than to read Shakespeare or Plato.
On Emotion and Value in David Hume and Max Scheler
Authors: Pyka Marek
Published: November 2019

While some philosophers tend to exclude any significance of emotion for the moral life, others place them in the center of both the moral life and the theory of value judgment. This paper presents a confrontation of two classic positions of the second type, namely the position of Hume and Scheler. The ultimate goal of this confrontation is metatheoretical — particularly as it concerns the analysis of the relations between the idea of emotion and the idea of value in this kind of theory of value judgment. In conclusion, I point to some important theoretical assumptions which underlie the positions of both thinkers despite all the other differences between them.
What Does Nozick’s Experience Machine Argument Really Prove?
Authors: Rivera-López Eduardo
Published: November 2019

Nozick's well-known Experience Machine argument can be considered a typically successful argument: as far as I know, it has not been discussed much and has been widely seen as conclusive, or at least convincing enough to refute the mental-state versions of utilitarianism. I believe that if his argument were conclusive, its destructive effect would be even stronger. It would not only refute mental-state utilitarianism, but all theories (whether utilitarian or not) considering a certain subjective mental state (happiness, pleasure, desire, satisfaction) as the only valuable state. I shall call these theories "mental state welfarist theories." I do not know whether utilitarianism or, in general, mental-state welfarism is plausible, but I doubt that Nozick's argument is strong enough to prove that it is not.
Valeur et Culture
Authors: Werneck Vera Rudge
Published: November 2019

Il est certain que, de plus en plus, on se rend compte du besoin de délimiter, de préciser l'idée de culture afin de rendre possible la différence entre le bon et le mauvais. En conséquence, l'humanité pourra surpasser la perplexité où elle se trouve à présent. Il est inadmissible d'accepter le nuisible et l'erreur comme manifestations de culture. S'agit-il d'un simple problème de sémantique? Ou bien, par ignorance ou confort, l'homme est-il en train d'assister passivement à l'essor des contre-valeurs en devenant complice de ce processus? Malgré la grande difficulté de la matière, nous pensons que l'idée de culture considérée comme instauration de la valeur mérite, en tant qu'un nouveau paradigme, en tant qu'idée directrice, l'attention et la réflexion de tous ceux qui souhaitent un monde meilleur.
La Institution Imaginaria del Leviathan
Authors: Astorga Omar
Published: November 2019

I discuss the basic conditions that allow us to grasp Hobbes's theory of the State from the standpoint of the imagination. I employ three interpretative points of view. First, I consider the role played by the concepts "person," "representation," and "theatre" in the institution of the social and political structure of the State. Second, I discuss the metaphorical value of the State, the persuasive function of which is derived from the biblical image of 'Leviathan.' Third, I consider the role taken by the counsellors of the State in the creation of images oriented toward obedience. In this way I attempt to demonstrate that the Hobbesian State can no longer be taken as an abstraction, but as a concrete result constituted by human nature as formulated by the imagination. Hence, one can understand Hobbes as extending the interpretation of modern political thought beyond the linguistic imperative of univocity. In this way we can grasp Hobbes's importance for the modern age.
Freedom and Equality in the Comparison of Political Systems
Authors: Balzer Wolfgang
Published: November 2019

The notions of freedom and equality in a group are precisely defined in terms of individual exertions of influence or power. Freedom is discussed in the version ‘freedom from’ influence rather than in the version ‘freedom to do’ what one wants. It is shown that at the ideal conceptual level complete freedom implies equality. Given the plausibility of the definitions this shows that political ‘folk rhetorics’ in which freedom and equality often are put in opposition are misled and misleading. Quantitative notions of ‘more freedom’ and ‘more equality’ are introduced and shown to be independent of each other. The bearing of these conceptual exercises on the comparison of political systems is discussed.
Educación de un Príncipe Cristiano
Authors: Cantarino Elena
Published: November 2019

La literatura política española de los siglos XVI y XVII consideraba que el ars regendi o ars gubernandi podía enseñarse y aprenderse. Proliferaron los ensayos tratando de formar futuros gobernantes, intentando plasmar la personalidad del príncipe perfecto en una estructura, técnica común a estas obras de carácter formativo. Diversos fueron los precedentes medievales, entre ellos, las narraciones históricas moralizadas, las colecciones de dichos agudos y sentencias filosóficas, y cierto género didáctico donde a la Pedagogía le concernía el afán moralizador en cuento era considerada Ética aplicada a la Psicología.(1) Si con Tomás de Aquino (1225-1274) culmina la asimilación del pensamiento de Aristóteles y, con ello, el movimiento de aristotelización iniciado por los comentaristas árabes (Ibn Rushd (1126-1198), conocido como Averroes) y judíos (Moses Maimónides (1135-1204)), la definitiva incorporación del Estagirita a la filosofía política y social significó hacer del Estado una institución natural cuyo fin era la protección del bien común. En tal contexto surge y se elabora desde el s.XIII hasta el s.XV la política como ars regendi o ars gubernandi; por una parte, scientia y por otra, virtus, esto es, una estructura racional que, a medio camino entre la sapientia y la prudentia,(2) debía facilitar una doctrina que guiara la práctica gubernativa.
The Call for a World Constitutional Convention
Authors: Felder David W.
Published: November 2019

A movement led by an organization called "One World" is advocating the idea of "Direct Democracy," whereby individuals everywhere would have the opportunity to elect delegates to a world constitutional convention. In theory, any document drafted by this convention would be returned to individuals throughout the world for their approval. The assumption of the Direct Democracy movement is that individuals throughout the world have the right to bypass existing governments in order to establish the rule of law on a global level. Leaders of this movement believe that the Direct Democracy movement is consistent with democratic ideas, including those articulated by Locke. Two questions are at issue. First, do individuals have the right to bypass existing governments in order to establish an international government? Second, is it desirable to establish world government? I conclude that, according to Locke, sovereign power rests with individuals—not governments. Individuals have the right to delegate a portion of their power from one government to another and, when they do so, revolution ensues. Revolution of this sort would be desirable because national governments cannot provide security in the nuclear age. So individuals should transfer some power from the national to the international level. The call for a world constitutional convention is a call for a peaceful revolution that could abolish war.
Rawls’ Concept Of Justice As Political
Authors: Hoy Terry
Published: November 2019

Rawls' theory of justice as fairness involves a central contention that principles of justice essential to the structure of a constitutional democracy must be viewed as political in contrast to more comprehensive moral, philosophical or religious doctrines. The concept of justice is not its being true to an antecedent moral order and given to us, but its being congruent with our self-understanding within the history of justice as political is not a mere modus vivendi, for it embodies an overlapping consensus that does have a moral basis. Critical reaction to Rawls has been that what is simply a consensus within a tradition of public discourse cannot afford an adequate criteria of moral justification, and that Rawls cannot define the moral basis for justice as fairness without some reference to a comprehensive theory of the good. But it will be argued that critics are missing what is central to Rawls' theory of moral justification as what he sees to be the outcome of a process of "wide reflective equilibrium" in which principles of justice initially given within a tradition are weighed against rival moral theories and in relation to scientific theories of human nature and society in order to establish what seems "most reasonable to us."
A Property Owning Democracy or a Liberal (Democratic) Socialism?
Authors: Jung Wonsup
Published: November 2019

This paper deals with the characteristic features of Rawls’ property-owning democracy, and whether a liberal democratic socialism can be compatible with Rawls’ political liberalism. I argue that a property-owning democracy can be compatible with Rawlsian justice while liberal socialism cannot. I understand the choice between property-owning democracy and liberal socialism as the problem of which kind of regime is more compatible with the pluralism of modern democracies. Property-owning democracy is more compatible with Rawls’ political liberalism since it permits a wider variety of the conceptions of the good than liberal socialism while at the same time permitting worker-managed firms; thus I argue that it can be understood as a "mixed" regime.
Le Legislateur et L’Ecrivain Politique Chez Rousseau
Authors: Meira do Nascimento Mílton
Published: November 2019

Chez Rousseau, la fonction du législateur qui crée les états se ressemble, parfois, á celle de l'écrivain politique. Les deux tâches se développent, toutefois, dans des niveaux différents. Le premier fonde les états particuliers, tandis que le deuxième élabore les principes du droit politique, condition de possibilité de la légitimité de tous les états empiriquement donnés. Ainsi, la tâche de l'érivain politique nous indique, chez Rousseau, la place destinée à la philosophie politique, qui ne peut être confondue avec un programme concret d'action, mais comme un code de principes auxquels les hommes d'action devront se tourner, afin de bien conduire les affaires de l'état. Outre cela, il faut penser aussi au precepteur qui, quand il s'agit de l'éducation publique, aura un rôle bien défini pour promouvoir une transformation radicale de l'homme, d'un tout parfait, indépendant, dans l'état de nature, en une partie du corps colectif, pour faire de l'homme un citoyen. Ce que Rousseau nous montre c'est que le législateur, aussi bien que l'écrivain politique, devront agir sur l'opinion publique, voir, sur les moeurs, sans violence, car l'art d'agir sur l'opinion publique ne tient point à la violence.
Violence et exclusion une interprétation éthique
Authors: Perine Marcelo
Published: November 2019

Les communautés humaines se sont organisées à l’origine autour de règles morales envisageant leur propre survie. Les règles morales existent parce que les êtres humains sont violents, en tant qu’êtres naturels, et raisonnables, en tant qu’êtres capables de choisir la raison. Le choix de la raison, au moment de créer un domaine d’exclusion et de reconnaissance, est ce qui constitue le monde humain comme monde sensé. La violence, concrétisée sous les plus différentes formes d’exclusion, est la négation du sens. Ainsi, l’élimination progressive de la violence est, en même temps, le secret des morales et le critère de toute action politique qui se veut morale.
John Dewey’s Critique of Socioeconomic Individualism
Authors: Zeman S. Scott
Published: November 2019

My paper attempts to exhibit the consistency of John Dewey’s non-individualistic individualism. It details Dewey’s claim that the traditional dualism opposing the individual to the social is politically debilitating. We find Dewey in the 20’s and 30’s, for example, arguing that the creation of a genuine public arena, one capable of precluding the rise of an artificial chasm between sociality and individuality—or, rather, one capable of precluding the rise of an artificial chasm between notions of sociality and individuality—had itself been forestalled by an inherited, outdated, but nonetheless dominant custom called individualism. By blocking public investigation itself, by enervating what Dewey called social inquiry, and thus by misguiding historically sensitive assessments of slippery social phenomena, our contingently strapped individualism drifts aimlessly and destructively through the present era. Insofar as it fails to realize how publicity and individuality can be a congruous, inextricable, and mutually conditioning pair, individualism leeches many of today’s individuals of their situated and situating historical potential.
Sobre la imposibilidad de un liberal paretiano
Authors: Zuleta Hugo R.
Published: November 2019

I criticize Amartya K. Sen’s solution to his well-known paradox and advance a new one, also consisting of a conditional version of the Pareto principle, to which a weakness of the liberal condition is added. Unlike Sen’s solution, the principle presented here is not based on metapreferences but on first level individual preferences themselves. To that purpose, I define criteria based exclusively on the internal structure of the individual preferences to identify motivation and to compare preference intensities. I distinguish between conditional and unconditional preferences, and show that Sen’s paradox can appear even when individual preferences are completely unconditional. Then, I extend the distinction between conditional and unconditional preferences to complex states of the world that can include elements belonging to personal spheres of different individuals. The main idea is that the Pareto principle should prevail upon the liberal condition when it serves preferences of the individuals concerned that are more intense than their prefrences over the pairs of alternatives assigned to them by the liberal condition.
Religious Education in the Public Schools
Authors: Bartkowiak Julia J.
Published: November 2019

Recently, several authors have cited traditional liberal principles to argue that religious education must be offered in public schools in the United States of America. These authors claim that exposure to a variety of religious beliefs and traditions is a necessary means to attaining the two goals of providing children with "open futures" and encouraging tolerance of religious diversity. This paper contends that these arguments are seriously flawed, and provides reasons which demonstrate that, in practice, these two goals cannot be accomplished by religion courses in the public schools. Additionally, mandatory religion courses in the public schools appear to be unconstitutional and infringe on parental rights and freedom of religion. Consequently, the goals of a liberal state are best achieved by not offering religious education in the public schools.
Aproximación Metodológica al problema de la comprensión
Authors: Caponi Gustavo
Published: November 2019

In The Open Society and Its Enemies and The Poverty of Historicism, Popper argues that there is no essential methodological distinction between human and natural sciences. Each of them, he claims, endeavors to elaborate and test causal explanations of the phenomenal world. However, in later writings he revises his position. The very notion of "situational (or logic) analysis" (previously introduced to characterize a simple heuristic device employed in the elaboration of explanations of human action) is more and more identified with the notion of "objective understanding." Such a notion is thought of as referring to the method which is peculiar to the human sciences. I show that the peculiarity of this method lies in the fact that experience is no longer investigated by means of "the principle of causality." Rather, it is investigated by means of what Popper calls "the principle of rationality" or "the principle of the adequacy of actions."
On Intolerance
Authors: Drabarek Anna
Published: November 2019

I assume that the feeling of evil is more widespread than the feeling of good. That is why intolerance as an attitude appears to be even more common than tolerance. This thesis is justified by psychological and sociological theories which, by analyzing the psyches of humans as individuals and of societies, explain why intolerance, destruction and aggressiveness control our actions so frequently. Therefore, in spite of positive intentions inherent in every person who dreams about being the best and living as decently as possible, an honest picture of our time evokes a rather pessimistic disposition. Although a lot has been done to implement a principle of ethical minimalism in society, at the same time there is also a moral approval — though with no one willing to admit it! — for integration mechanisms based on xenophobia.
Respect, Coercion and Religious Belief
Authors: Eberle Chris
Published: November 2019

In this paper, I articulate and evaluate an important argument in support of the claim that citizens of a liberal democracy should not support coercive policies on the basis of a rationale they know other citizens reasonably reject. I conclude that that argument is unsuccessful. In particular, I argue that religious believers who support coercive public policies on the basis of religious convictions do not disrespect citizens who reasonably regard such religious convictions as false.
The Journey of the Dialectic
Authors: Mansueto Anthony
Published: November 2019

This paper argues that: a) philosophy generally, and the dialectical tradition in particular, first emerged in Ancient Greece in response to the nihilism and relativism generated by the development of a market economy; b) despite differences between its 'idealist' and 'materialist' wings, it is possible to speak of a basically unified dialectical tradition extending from Socrates, Plato and Aristotle through the great medieval Aristotelians (Ibn Sina, Ibn Rusd, Maimonides, Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas), up to Hegel, Marx and their interpreters, a tradition unified around the proposition that we can rise by rational means to a first principle which in turn serves as a principle of value and a criterion for ethical norms, thus becoming a standard by which to criticize the market order and argue for an alternative allocation of resources; c) the historic difficulties and current crisis of the dialectical tradition arise from a failure to demonstrate that the universe is a teleological system ordered to the perfection of form or the development of increasing levels of organization; and d) recent developments in the physical, biological and social sciences suggest that we may soon be in a position to remedy this difficulty. This paper criticizes those who say that it is no longer possible to "do philosophy the old way," and argues for the critical importance of philosophy generally and the dialectical tradition in particular for the future of the human civilizational project.
Integrity and Supererogation in Ethical Communities
Authors: Torisky Eugene V.
Published: November 2019

This paper explores the connection between supererogation and the integrity of ethical agents. It argues two theses: (1) there is a generally unrecognized but crucial social dimension to the moral integrity of individuals which challenges individual ideals and encourages supererogation; (2) the social dimension of integrity, however, must have limits that preserve the individuals's integrity. The concept of integrity is explored through recent works by Christine Korsgaard, Charles Taylor, and Susan Babbitt. A life of integrity is in part a life whereby one 'lives up to' one's own deeply held values. Yet, as one seeks to transcend the realm of the morally customary or the dutiful, one must check one's progress not only against one's own ideals but against the ideals and behavior of the ethical community. To answer affirmatively to one's own ideals is to hear the call of integrity both from within oneself and from without. However, by being free to hear, the freedom to close one's ears inevitably will arise. Only actions displaying such freedom can be actions of moral integrity. Since supererogatory actions are always left to an agent's discretion-that is, are fully optional-they show in paradigmatic fashion the integrity of moral agents. While an ethic of integrity and supererogation provides challenges to members of an ethical community by encouraging them continually to reevaluate their actions and character in reference to postulated ideals, it also leads us to be quite wary of judging individual's moral motives from the outside. A passage by Jonathan Kozol is cited that suggests our society routinely demands supererogatory action from its poorest members. This is illegitimate since they live in conditions that alienate rather than integrate them both with themselves and with the rest of the community.
Sources and Implications in Paul Ricoeur’s Ideology Concept
Authors: Tura Marcelo Felix
Published: November 2019

This paper intends to shed light on the issue of ideology as found in the work of Ricoeur. According to Ricoeur, ideology is not only distortive of social reality; it is as well related to society's power and integration, which in fact changes our way of understanding the entire world. Ideology is an endless and unresolvable problem, since there is no non-ideological place from which to discuss ideology. The phenomenological hermeneutic is employed in an attempt to mediate ideological phenomena in a Ricoeur-like fashion.
Being and Race
Authors: Vasey Craig
Published: November 2019

In this paper I offer an application of the philosophical analysis of meanings of "being" derived from existential phenomenology to the issue of race, distinguishing a static meaning (which I name "color") from a dynamic meaning ("race") by analogy to the sex/gender distinction. I then distinguish a substantialist meaning of race (as facticity, a socio-historically constituted meaning of color) from an existential meaning (race as lived, as intentionality). Finally I briefly explore the risk of this position on "race," how it is an invitation to bad faith, while being nonetheless essential to the struggle against racism.
Cosmology and Moral Philosophy
Authors: Dubrovsky Vladimir N.
Published: November 2019

The universe as a whole can be shown to consist of two worlds: the real world and the transcendental world. The real world is a multitude of passing things in a gravitational field: it is the world of nature, every unit of which is born (from the transcendental world), develops, degrades and dies (that is, it returns to the transcendental world). The transcendental world is the world of the integrated, nonpassing, unborn and undying, internally functioning Unity, which is the other side of the real world (so to speak) as roots to a tree and its branches in relation to the surface of the Earth. The fundamental science of the real world is theoretical physics. The transcendental world is also a 'physical' but energyless world. In this paper, I outline characteristics of the real world, and the basic characteristics of the transcendental world which are essential for constructing a theory about the functioning of the cosmological vacuum.
¿Es posible una fundamentación trascendental de la ética?
Authors: Fernández Graciela
Published: November 2019

Did Kant fail in his attempt to give a transcendental foundation to ethics? In this paper, I maintain that historically considered, Kant never attempted such a thing. But at the same time, I argue that transcendental philosophy plays an important role in the growth of moral knowledge. Beyond the founding aspect, transcendental philosophy has made (and probably will make) discoveries on moral matters. But, it is important for the old and the new transcendental philosophy to (1) recognize its own basic theories, and (2) limit its foundational claims.
Die Urbild-Abbild-Problematik aus ethischer Sicht
Authors: Gloy Karen
Published: November 2019

Nach einer heute weit verbreiteten Auffassung besteht zwischen Sein und Sollen, deskriptien und normativen Aussagen, Theorie und Praxis eine Interdependenz. Man hegt die Meinung, daß die vorstellung, die wir uns von der Welt machen, das Bild von der Nature, der Gesellschaft oder von welchem Bereich immer, bestimmte Handlungsintentionen aufweist, d.h. bestimmte Verhaltensweisen veranlaßt und urgiert, während sie andere zurückweist, ablehnt, verhindert. Ein bestimmtes theoretisches Rahmenwerk enthält Anreize und Motivationen für bestimmte Handlungen, wie es Hemmschwellen für andere Verhaltensweisen aufbaut. Es enthält einen Kodex erwünschter und erlaubter sowie gerade noch geduldeter Handlungen wie auch untersagter, die einem anderen, alternativen Rahmenwerk angehören. Da deskriptive und normative Aussagen Hand in Hand gehen, lassen auch umgekehrt bestimmte Verhaltens- und Handlungsdispositionen auf den dahinter stehenden, leitenden Vorstellungsrahmen schließen. Denkbar ist folgende Alternative: Entweder gibt die vorgegebene Natur- und Seinsordnung das Vorbild, die Richtschnur und den Maßstab für unser Handeln ab, so daß sich das Handeln der Nature anpassen, nach- und Mitvollzug der natürlichen Ordnung sein muß, oder das menschliche Subjekt legt die Bedingungen und Normen für das Verhalten gegenüber der Natur fest, so daß umgekehrt die Natur sich nach diesen Bedingungen richten muß und Handeln zum Konstruieren der Natur wird.
Kant’s Moral Constructivism and his Conception of Legislation
Authors: Kain Patrick Paul
Published: November 2019

Some hold that Kant’s conception of autonomy requires the rejection of moral realism in favor of "moral constructivism." However, commentary on a little noticed passage in the Metaphysics of Morals (with the assistance of Kant’s Lectures and Reflexionen) reveals that the conception of legislation at the core of Kant’s conception of autonomy represents a decidedly anti-constructivist strand in his moral philosophy.
Instrumental Rationality and the Instrumental Doctrine
Authors: Macleod Alistair M.
Published: November 2019

In opposition to the instrumental doctrine of rationality, I argue that the rationality of the end served by a strategy is a necessary condition of the rationality of the strategy itself: means to ends cannot be rational unless the ends are rational. First, I explore cases-involving ‘proximate’ ends (that is, ends whose achievement is instrumental to the pursuit of some more fundamental end) — where even instrumentalists must concede that the rationality of a strategy presupposes the rationality of the end it serves. Second, I draw attention to the counter-intuitive consequences — in cases involving ‘non-proximate’ ends — of substituting (allegedly more manageable) questions about de facto ends for questions about the rationality of ends. Third, I argue-against Nozick — that it is a mistake to suppose that the only question dividing instrumentalists from non-instrumentalists is whether the instrumental doctrine needs supplementation. Finally, I try to show that questions about the rationality of ends need not be viewed as impossibly daunting.
Justice As Desert
Authors: Phillips Christopher
Published: November 2019

Philosopher Matthew Lipman, in Social Inquiry, says that there are instances in which 'what one deserves may be specified fairly readily. A sick child deserves medicine, a hungry child deserves food, children deserve an education...' This seems to imply that these are cases in which what one deserves is clear-cut, and only when 'the cases become more complicated' does it become 'progressively more difficult' to determine desert. I would submit that these cases are not nearly so cut-and-dry, in terms of determining desert, as one might imagine. Is it really correct to say that a sick child deserves medicine? Who is to say? Who is to be the ultimate arbiter? Is there some sort of authority or power (higher or otherwise) who is looked to in order to make such a determination (or who is looked to in order to justify making such an assertion in the first place)? Is desert to be determined based on need? On abundance of what is deserved? On legal entitlements? This paper will address just such questions.
Noch Einmal in Sachen Normativität und Autonomie der Ethik
Authors: Przemysla Gut
Published: November 2019

Das Ziel dieses Artikels ist, die fundamentalen Gründe dafür zu bestimmen daß die Ethik von ihrem Wesen her normativ ist und daß sie als (1) theoretische und (2) autonome Disziplin möglich ist. Seit dem Positivismus begegnet man immer häufiger der gegenteiligen Ansicht (die heute besonders im Naturalismus präsent ist), daß eine als normative und autonome Disziplin verstandene Ethik nicht real sei. Man meint, sie [die Ethik] müsse durch reduktive Analyse entweder als Teil der Biologie oder als Fragment der Soziologie interpretiert werden-wer schon Comte von einer ‘sozialen Physiologie’ sprach. Die Ethik soll nicht mehr sein als lediglich (1) eine Art von Analyse der Motive, die von streng definierten biologischen Mechanismen ausgelöst werden, welche von bestimmten emotionales Reaktionen begleitet sind (Lust oder Unlust), oder (2) eine Art von Analyse der sozialen und psychologischen Dimension des menschlichen Lebens, eine Untersuchung der dieses beherrschenden Gesetze. Dabei wird vorausgesetzt, daß das faktische Verhalten sowie die faktischen Bestrebungn unk Neigungen sowie die ihnen zugrundeliegenden beständigen biologischen Mechanismen autonomatisch in sittliche Verhaltensregeln übersetzt werden (siehe M. Schlick, Fragen der Ethik]. Man is der Meinung, jeder Versuch einer rationalen Erklärung und Begründung der Aufgaben der Ethik (der faktisch formulierten Urteile und Norman) sei nur ‘von außen her’ möglich, d.h., infolge der Anweendung von aus anderen Theorien (Biologie, Soziologie oder Psychologie) übernommenen Prozeduren unk Kriterien. Andernfalls bliebe die Ethik ein ungeordnetes und unkoordiniertes Ensemble von Direktiven und Beobachtungen, denen höchstens eine übergeordnete Losung oder-schlimmer noch-the bloße Names einer Autors eine gemeinesame Farbe verleihen könne [siehe M. Ossowska Glówne modele systemów etycznych, Studia Filozofiezne 4 (1995), nr. 4.
Justification of Punishment!
Authors: Sarker Jitendra Nath
Published: November 2019

Both utilitarians and the deontologists are of the opinion that punishment is justifiable, but according to the utilitarian moral thinkers, punishment can be justified solely by its consequences, while the deontologists believe that punishment is justifiable purely on retributive ground. D. D. Raphael is found to reconcile both views. According to him, a punishment is justified when it is both useful and deserved. Maclagan, on the other hand, denies it to be justifiable in the sense that it is not right to punish an offender. I claim that punishment is not justifiable but not in the sense in which it is claimed by Maclagan. The aim of this paper is to prove the absurdity of the enquiry as to whether punishment can be justified. Difference results from differing interpretations of the term 'justification.' In its traditional meaning, justification can hardly be distinguished from evaluation. In this sense, to justify an act is to say that it is good or right. I differ from the traditional use and insist that no act or conduct can be justified. Infliction of punishment is a human conduct and as such it is absurd to ask for its justification. I hold the view that to justify is to give reason, and it is only a statement or an assertion behind which we can put forth reason. Infliction of pain is an act behind which the agent may have purpose or intention but not reason. So, it is not punishment, but rather statements concerning punishment that we can justify.
On Foundation Problems of Normative and Educational Ethics
Authors: Seidl Horst
Published: November 2019

The controversies in our time between teleological and deontological ethics which come down to the problem "from being to ought," referring to human being or nature, can be resolved only by an adequate conception of human nature. Taking up the ancient tradition (Plato, Aristotle, Stoa) again, we can re-examine the teleological conception of human nature as primarily instinctive and selfish, and say that human nature is constituted also by reason and that the instinctive nature is predisposed to be guided by reason or intellect. The constitutive order of the human soul, with the subordination of the instinct under the intellect, involves already some natural goodness, of which the intellect is aware (in the natural moral conscience) and for which the will strives (in a natural inclination). This is the basis for the "moral law" and for normative ethics. Thus, human nature is not selfish in itself. Although moral goodness as humankind’s perfection is an ideal, it has in us already imperfect natural beginnings, a "natural morality." In a certain sense, the moral ought of actions comes from one’s being, from the natural moral goodness of which the intellect is aware in itself, and from its good intentions.
Moral Goodness Alone Is ‘Good Without Qualifications’
Authors: Seifert Josef
Published: November 2019

Kant says that moral values are ‘good without qualification.’ This assertion and similar remarks of Plato can be understood in terms of a return to moral data themselves in the following ways: 1. Moral values are objectively good and not relative to our judgments; 2. Moral goodness is intrinsic goodness grounded in the nature of acts and independent of our subjective satisfaction; 3. Moral goodness expresses in an essentially new and higher sense of the idea of value as such; 4. Moral Goodness cannot be abused like intellectual, aesthetic, temperamental and other values; 5. Moral values are good in that they never must be sacrificed for any other value, because they are incomparably higher and should absolutely and ‘first’ be sought for; 6. Moral goodness makes the person as such good; 7. All three different modes of participation in moral values are linked to the absolute, most ‘necessary’ and highest good for the person; 8. Moral Values are goods "in the unrestricted sense" by being pure perfections in the sense that "neither in this world nor outside it" can we find anything that could be called good unqualifiedly except moral goodness which is absolutely better to possess than not to possess. 9. Moral Values are unconditionally good because they are never just ‘means’ towards ends. 10. Moral values imply a new type of ought which elucidates the ‘absolute sense’ in which they are good. Conclusion: These distinctions allow a better grasp of Kant and Plato as well as of a central ethical truth decisive for the moral education of humankind.
The Geometry of Ethics
Authors: Stanley Maurice F.
Published: November 2019

The language of ethics can be viewed as consisting of de facto analytic claims: ‘Murder is wrong,’ ‘One ought to meet one’s responsibilities,’ etc. I argue that it is narrow-minded to think, as Quine and others do, that we should put scientific and mathematical claims above those of ethics, for the terms of ethics fit together just as geometrical terms do, and it does not matter whether there is any correspondence between such terms and an ‘external world.’ What matters is whether we wish to use ethical language as we do scientific language to understand the world. We posit points in space-time, we posit rights and wrongs. The former are no more real than the latter, and no less. Values, like circles, are no less real for our having imposed them on the Lebenswelt.
Considérations sur l’identité de la morale actuelle
Authors: Teodor Vidam
Published: November 2019

This study presents some clarifyings of conceptual order concerning the understanding of several basic terms such as: morality, morals and ethics. Morality is presented as a colective work, spontaneous, as a result of peculiar experience, not as a lived or experimented experience, but one that refers to the effort of achievement of an ideal. Due to the internal conditions that made it possible (liberty, will, consciousness) morality is founded affectivly before it manifests rationally. Morals is in the same time a product and a project: as a product includs intimate determinations between morality, amorality and imorality, as a project it is a step of the conviction regarding participation in social changes. Ethics is a second but not secondary (corpus) a systematized of value judgements about human rules. Peculiars ethics (medical, bioethics, ethology a.s.o.) must take part in forming a general-human morals in the next millenium, under the direction of communication ethics, the only ethics placed under the sign of postmetaphisics thinking.
Negotiating Ethics as a Two Level Debate
Authors: van Es Robert
Published: November 2019

As a form of moral debate, discourse ethic, according to Habermas, is based on regulated discussion. Participating moral agents share a common understanding in the ideal speech situation. Following procedures they try to reach consensus on questions of justice and rights. Critics of discourse ethic point to the bias of Western assumptions regarding agents and methods, the danger of elitism, and the optimism and the pacifism that run through the theory. After modification, Habermas distinguishes two types of discourse: the discourse of justification and the discourse of application. The second is inferior to the first. In the second, there is room for negotiating. There is another way of looking at negotiation, one that takes negotiating seriously as an important category of human behavior. This category shows an interesting overlap with moral behavior. Distinguishing four concepts of negotiating and using reciprocity and trust as the moral minimum, Negotiating Ethics is presented as a two level moral debate, close to Habermas but morally different in essential aspects.
Partial Contractarianism and Moral Motivation
Authors: Voice Paul
Published: November 2019

In this paper I argue that David Gauthier’s answer to the Why be moral? question fails. My argument concedes the possibility of constrained maximization in all the senses Gauthier intends and does not rely on the claim that it is better to masquerade as a constrained maximizer than to be one. Instead, I argue that once a constrained maximizer in the guise of "economic man" is transformed through an affective commitment to morality into a constrained maximizer in the guise of the "liberal individual," then a purely rational justification for morality must become invisible to the latter. If I can show this, then I can show that rational justification can have no motivational power for the "liberal individual" and that Gauthier fails to answer the problem of moral motivation.
Aspectos da avaliação dos alunos no atendimento educacional especializado da sala de recurso multifuncional
Authors: Pasian Mara Silvia , Mendes Enicéia Gonçalves , Cia Fabiana
Published: November 2019

Com a implantação na realidade brasileira das Salas de Recursos Multifuncionais (SRM) e do Atendimento Educacional Especializado (AEE), torna-se importante que medidas sejam realizadas para conhecer quais os critérios estão sendo utilizados para a avaliação e identificação dos alunos encaminhados para o AEE.  Ter ciência de como são elaborados os planos de desenvolvimento e como é avaliado o rendimento acadêmico dos alunos atendidos nas SRM e se os mesmos participam, e de que forma, das avaliações padronizadas. Objetiva-se com este estudo descrever e discutir os dados coletados através de um survey sobre a opinião dos professores da SRM referentes à avaliação dos alunos público-alvo da educação especial (PAEE). A aplicação foi em larga escala, coletaram-se dados de 1202 professores de SRM das redes municipais de ensino, com participantes de 20 estados em mais de 100 cidades brasileiras. Como resultado, evidencia-se expressiva dificuldade na realização da avaliação para o encaminhamento e identificação do aluno PAEE para o atendimento na SRM. Os professores relatam que faltam serviços que auxiliem esse processo de avaliação, como uma equipe multidisciplinar. O mesmo ocorre para a avaliação do planejamento das atividades a serem realizadas, pois são diversos alunos com características particulares e necessitam de uma avalição que contemple o professor da educação especial, da sala comum e outros profissionais que podem auxiliar a compor o quadro de atividades para cada especificidade
Orkney, Shetland and the Networks of the Northern Reformation
Authors: Methuen Charlotte
Published: November 2019

This article explores the possible implications of the relationship between Orkney and Shetland and Norway for understanding the spread of the Reformation, focusing on the period between the late 1520s, when Reforming ideas began to be preached in Bergen, and 1560, when the Reformation was introduced into Scotland, including Orkney and Shetland. Draws on a scholarship which has shown the importance for the Reformation of language, trade, migration and urban/rural distinctions it investigates tantalising hints of contact between Orkney and Shetland, Norway (particularly Bergen) and Germany in questions of religion. This article does not seek to revise current understandings of the relationships of Orkney and Shetland to Scotland but seeks to explore what insights into (proto-)Reformation processes in Orkney and Shetland when possible influences from debates the Norwegian context – specifically Bergen – are considered alongside the influence of Scottish debates about religion. It concludes that whilst there is some evidence of contacts between individuals and that these contacts must have had aspects which related to religious practice, both the rural nature of Orkney and Shetland communities, and their relative isolation, meant that Reformation ideas were slow to take hold.
The Icelandic Language at the Time of the Reformation
Authors: Óskarsson Veturliði
Published: November 2019

The process of the Reformation in Iceland in its narrow sense is framed by the publication of the New Testament in 1540 and the whole Bible in 1584. It is sometimes believed that Icelandic lan­guage would have chang­ed more than what it has, if these translations had not seen the day.

      During the 16th century, in all 51 books in Icelandic were printed. Almost all are translations, mostly from German. These books contain many loanwords, chiefly of German origin. These words are often a direct result of the Reformation, but some of them are considerably older. As an example, words with the German prefix be- were discussed to some length in the article.

      Some loanwords from the 16th century have lived on to our time, but many were either wiped out in the Icelandic language purism of the nineteenth and twentieth century, or never became an integrated part of the language, outside of religious and official texts. Some words even only show up in one or two books of the 16th century.

      The impact of the Reformation on the future develop­ment of the Icelandic language, other than a temporary one on the lexicon was limited, and influence on the (spoken) language of common people was probably little.
Isaac Olsen – The First Missionary among the Sami People in Finnmark?
Authors: Willumsen Liv Helene
Published: November 2019

This article deals with Isaac Olsen, a Norwegian who was an itinerant catechist and teacher among the Sami people in Finnmark, Northern Norway. The author claims that Isaac Olsen, as a forerunner to the Sami missionary Thomas von Westen, in fact was the first missionary among the Sami people in Finnmark. Isaac Olsen came to Finnmark just after 1700, learned the Sami language and started his work among the Sami population in Eastern Finnmark. He got to know the Sami people well, and they gave him information about Sami pre-Christian religious practice, among other names of places of sacrifice. These names, in addition to many other pieces of information, were written down by Isaac Olsen in a copybook that has been preserved. The article discusses in great detail the contents of this book, which contains valuable knowledge about Early Modern Sami culture and religion. Isaac Olsen, also as a pioneer, translated Danish religious texts into the Sami language, called to Copenhagen to perform translation work by the Missionary College.
On mushrooms and music museums
Authors: Losleben Katrin
Published: November 2019

This paper examines a feminist approach to curating music history and historiography. By exhibiting instruments, pictures, sounds, memorabilia of mostly composers, sometimes instrumentalists or instrument builders, music museums process narratives about music and its history to their visitors. Music history however is, as generations of feminist musicologists have pointed out, strongly shaped by the neglect of perspectives of female and non-heterosexual experiences. Historiography gravitates to and from male actors and taxonomies (Losleben 2017). As Meaghan Morris pointed out, feminism “is not easily adapted to heroic progress narratives”, in which these narratives are rooted and continue to contribute to; neither do feminist ideals and patriarchal structures in which museums are embedded go together well. My aim is to uncover from a feminist point of view these relations in which curating in ´ music instrument museums´ and popular music museums are embedded and how a feminist approach might be possible even so.