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Anthropos 1–2 (213–214) 2009
Janek Musek, Marko Polič
PHILOSOPHICAL SYMPOSIUM "BIOETHICS"
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The present paper sets to think the position from which the ethics of nature is derivated, which includes various environmental ethics, ecological morals and attempts to argue for animal rights. It is shown how the ethics of nature overlooks the radical and irreducible loss to which progression of mind is not able to avoid, and so it remains bound to the project of enlightenment, with this however also to belief of human’s special place in the world. The paper therefore proposes a return to the thought of Charles Darwin in order to understand its implications.
Key words: ethics of animals, animal rights, Charles Darwin, philosophy of the enlightenment, philosophy of science, theory of evolution.
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In the relatively short history of modern biomedical ethics informed consent became one of its central topics. As a content it arose from the negative experience of experiments on human beings executed by Nazi political and ideological motivated doctors during the second world war whereas formally the theory refers to the act of “full disclosure and compete understanding” (Beauchamp). It solely corresponds to the dignity of human person. That meaning of informed consent is partly is partly associated with the formation of bioethics in the seventies of twentieth century. Already the Declaration of Helsinki (1964) showed that the original ideal form of informed consent imagined by the authors of Nuremberg Code (1947) is not realizable and that it is necessary to create a space of research without losing the original idea of unconditional respect of human person. In the various options of redefinition of informed consent alert as the declarative ethics as the theoretical reflection on informed consent on a tempting of double loyalty of the doctor/ researcher where is losing the original idea by different forms of compromise. The theorists are unanimous that every lowering of criteria of autonomy, as for example ‘included’ or ‘silent’ consent, as an acquisition of the patient’s signature’, as a ‘readiness to accept a constructive proposal’ etc. are without moral significance. The relationship between doctor and patient (between researcher and the person involved in research) is between these two extreme positions. It begins with the minimum whereas a process tends to the credibility of humanum in medicine in biomedical research. Key words: autonomy, bioethics, human dignity, communication, informed consent, prinicpalism, authenticity.
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The paper on philosophical thematisation of bioethics is based on the findings of the Frankfurt school of Marxism and in particular on Habermas’ criticism of naturalism. The reason for the new-age anthropocentrism of the absolute subject not opening up the space for bioethics is the anthropological characteristics of dominion of a one-dimensional being. These characteristics are typified by onedimensional thinking in terms of rational instrumentalisation, imperial, autocratic and narcissistic culture of colonisation of life, availability of nature and depletion of its resources, one-way communication strategy based on win-lose approach, accumulation of capital and material goods, confliction, i.e. competition in a hyper-competitive environment, expansionist-explosive model of functioning based on cunningness, auto-destructive- ness and necrophilism emphasising the culture of death. The consequence is the rebellion of nature. Nature refuses to be treated as a means to an end. The human being has tried in vain to dominate his/her nature by being cunning because any attempt has turned against him/her. Lewis, Fukuyama, amongst others, have gone as far as diagnosing the end of the human kind. The dominion abuses bioethics.
The new integrated paradigm of science based on a decentralised being has opened up the space for bioethics. Its approach is fundamentally different from the mechanical (naturalistic) paradigm since it is based on an open, dynamically balanced multi-functional being, on the culture of life, productive love in terms of biophilia, rational self-limitation (auto-correction), preservation of sacred life, convivial technique, a being in harmony with the (in)organic nature, empathy and empathic communication. Bioethics may be defined in various ways. For the purpose of this paper bioethics is ethics of harmony, conviviality and going beyond the "selfish gene".
Key words: dominion, management, autocracy, totalitarianism, anthropology, life, nature.
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Die Studie ist auf problematische Aspekte der Bioethik fokussiert, so wie sich diese vom Standpunkt der Philosophie her zeigen, und zeigt eine mögliche produktive Rolle der Philosophie auf, welche dazu verhelfen könnte, die Bioethik als wissenschaftliche Disziplin zu konsolidieren.
Als ersten Aspekt dieses Problematisch-Seins wird die spezifi sche Art und Weise ihrer Interdisziplinarität behandelt, als zweiten das Fehlen der Ethik in ihrem Forschungsbereich. Im weiteren erörtern wird die aktuelle Spaltung der Bioethik in biomedizinische auf der einen und in die universale Lebensethik auf der anderen Seite, und möchten zeigen, dass wir die gespaltene Gestalt der Bioethik nicht zu leicht nehmen sollten. Das Problem ihres Gespaltenseins rührt nämlich von zwei archetypischen und zugleich gegensätzlichen Symbolorientationen der Kultur als solcher her. Es handelt sich um den Unterschied zwischen Technik und Ethik, der den größten Teil der Geschichte der Menschheit verschiedene von einander überwiegend unabhängige Wege eingeschlagen hat. Heute befi ndet er sich gerade innerhalb der Bioethik aber unerwartet und gänzlich unvorbereitet auf demselben Weg und spitzt sich extrem zu.
Schlüsselwörter: Bioethik, Technik, Ethik, Philosophie
PHILOSOPHICAL MARATHON: "HOW TO DO THINGS WITH PHILOSOPHY?"
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The addresses the goal of philosophizing. It provides an indirect answer to Nietzsche's article grudge against the loss of goal in modern man. The origin of philosophy as the concussion of groundless attunements proves to be its very goal. However, in reaching for his goal, the philosopher stumbles upon something highly unusually rewarding: the lingering of exhilerated certainty.
Key words: philosophy, Nietzsche, groundless attunement, lingering, certainty
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In this essay the author presents his understanding of philosophy and philosopher's work. Using the problem of free will as his paradigm example, the author draws attention to certain similarities between philosophy and “normal science” (T. Kuhn). A scientist is collecting facts and observations, working out experiments, testing theories within a paradigm …, while a philosopher is working on conceptual investigations in a particular field, introducing distinctions, analysing presumptions, replying to arguments … But philosophy with its generality and foundational reflections also has some characteristics of Kuhnian revolutionary science. Objections to this view of philosophy are critically examined, especially those connected with problems of wisdom and “meaning.”
Keywords: (meta)philosophy, free will, conceptual investigations, philosophy and science, wisdom.
PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH
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Article discusses the psychological characteristics of visually impaired adolescents. In introduction, main developmental tasks, which are distinctive of the period of adolescence, are presented. Further, the problems of early intervention services for visually impaired that are crucial for their psychosocial development both in childhood as well as in the entrance in adolescence, are discussed. Admonitions of lack of early intervention services in Slovenia are strongly emphasized, considering the negative consequences as development of various emotional, social, as well as cognitive problems of Slovenian adolescents as related to their peers from the states where early intervention services are assured. Then, the importance of each developmental task of visually impaired adolescents is stressed, and the most sensitive areas are discussed. Finally, practical instructions for educators as well as parents of visually impaired adolescents are offered.
Key words: adolescence, developmental tasks, visual impairment, early intervention, intra-group differences
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The contribution briefly presents the development of behavioural genetic science, defines its subject and assumptions, basic research methods in quantitative behavioural genetics and the role of quantitative behavioural genetic theory in psychology. Then, partitioning of behavioural variance in a population to heritable genetic component and two types of environmental components, i.e. shared and non-shared environment, is explained. Elementary quantitative methods are also described along with specific molecular genetic methods upon which contemporary and complex statistical approaches to investigate components of behavioural variability are based. We further summarize key findings on the magnitude of common genetic effects and the influences of common shared and non-shared environment on individual differences in the development of cognitive abilities, including academic achievements, personality, and psychopathology. Next, we focus on several limitations with regard to the interpretation of heritability coefficient (the magnitude of heritable genetic effect on behaviour) and important research findings about ways the environment affects behaviour, i.e. different types of genotype-environment correlations and the interaction between genotype and environment, are emphasized. The significance of contemporary behavioural genetic findings in psychology is highlighted in the concluding section and current trends in the development of behavioural genetic research are illustrated.
Key words: behavioural genetics, behavioural characteristics, components of phenotypic variation, heritability, environmental effects
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Wisdom, one of the most important personality dimensions, has been only very recently put under psychological research scrutiny. The present study investigates the relationship between basic personality dimensions and generativity, a salient and easy to measure indicator of wisdom. The results revealed a rather stable structure of personality – generativity relations. Generativity and wisdom are significantly associated with the majority of basic personality traits including the Big Five factors, the Big Two and the Big One (general factor of personality). The most general personality basis of wisdom represents the general factor of personality on the most general level, the plasticity factor on the next level and openness, extraversion and agreeableness on the level of the Big Five factors. Personality traits explain about 36 percent of the variance in the generativity. Social potency, agreeableness, openness, well-being and achievement are the best special predictors of generativity.
Key words: Personality, personality traits, general factor of personality, generativity, wisdom
STUDIES
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The following article deals with Nāgārjuna’s philosophical deconstruction of his contemporary scholastic systems in Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, which continues to be pertinent today as it deals with everyday metaphysics reflected in a dichotomizing understanding of the world. One of the main causes of suffering recognized by Nāgārjuna is unawareness of an unfounded objectifying of things which thereupon become objects of our attachments (one of the closest and most painful being the concept of an independent self). Using a dialectical method reductio ad absurdum Nāgārjuna reveals the non-existence of self and dependent arising of the phenomenal world that he terms śūnyatā [skrt. emptiness], one of the basic principles of Mūlamadhyamakakārikā beside the emptiness of emptiness and the identity of emptiness and dependent arising. In the end the article focuses on the topic of impermanence in light of the doctrine of emptiness.
Key words: Nāgārjuna, Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, emptiness, impermanence, Buddhism, Mādhyamika, Indian philosophy
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The main focus of the article is an on-going, centuries-long debate around God and the possibility of His depiction. Is it possible to represent Him with an image or, quite contrarily, is such an image the subject of prohibition, as one might presume due to certain statements in the Holy scriptures? Given this basic frame, the article gives an account of different views within the Christian church(es) and a Jewish perspective.
The analysis is meant to be a springboard for further investigation on how this same question is applied to Islam and Islamic art, i.e. the art concerned with communication between a Muslim believer and God.
Key Words: caricature, representation, Bible, iconoclasm, idolatry
REVIEWS
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