21 research outputs found
Not gods but animals : human dignity and vulnerable subjecthood
Drawing on earlier work on the conceptual structure of dignity, this paper will suggest a particular type of connectedness between vulnerability and human dignity; namely, that the ââorganizing ideaââ of human dignity is the idea of a particular sort of ethical response to universal human vulnerability. It is common ground among many, if not all, approaches to ethics that vulnerability requires us to respond ethically. Here, I argue that human dignity is distinctive among ethical values in that it values us because of, rather than in spite of, or regardless of, our universal vulnerability. The term ââdignityââ is used synonymously with ââhuman dignityââ here, since an investigation of the dignity of non-human entities forms no part of the present examination
Ein PlĂ€doyer fĂŒr die Reanimation der Hirntoddebatte in Deutschland
Stoecker R. Ein PlĂ€doyer fĂŒr die Reanimation der Hirntoddebatte in Deutschland. In: PreuĂ D, Knoepffler N, Kodalle K-M, eds. Körperteile - Körper teilen. Kritisches Jahrbuch der Philosophie. Beiheft, 8. WĂŒrzburg: Königshausen & Neumann; 2009: 41-59
Transizioni
Questo quarto volume del Centro âRicerche di Gnoseologia e Metafisicaâ, sin dallâimmagine di copertina, raffigurante la giovane Europa sul dorso del toro, manifesta il proprio tema portante, che dĂ il titolo allâopera: Transizioni. La violenza del ratto, pur innegabile e inarrestabile, avviene lentamente e gradualmente: cosĂŹ siamo appunto noi nel divenire e, a fortiori, nel contingente, in una condizione di âtransizioneâ, una condizione liminale dai bordi costantemente sfumati in cui la sfida Ăš affrontare questa âtraduzioneâ (sia in senso fisico-etimologico, che metaforico) con tutto ciĂČ che essa implica e con tutti i suoi aspetti chiaroscurali (un poâ crepuscolari, un poâ aurorali). Una âtransizioneâ di cui lâessere umano Ăš massimamente capace, nonchĂ© protagonista, in quanto assomma al mutare quella capacitĂ astrattiva e quellâautocoscienza che gli consentono di domandarsi âchi sono io?â (un âchiâ che si trasforma in un âdoveâ metafisico ed esistenziale nel tableau dellâessere) e, nello slittamento tra il non-piĂč-del-passato e il non-ancora-del-futuro, di gestire questa metamorfosi senza perdere se stesso e il mondo, trasformando il mutare in âperformareâ, ovvero muoversi tra e con le forme e mantenere il âfilo narrativoâ dellâesistenza. Plasmandosi e plasmando, âagendo-nel-farsi-della-realtĂ â e della storia (e non solo retrospettivamente), lâessere umano pone le condizioni di possibilitĂ di una filosofia dellâazione e della liberazione propriamente detta. Questa Ăš la cornice tematica in cui si collocano i molteplici interventi del volume, cui hanno contribuito tanto i membri e le/i collaboratrici/tori del Centro RGM, quanto alcune/i studiose/i di fama internazionale che hanno partecipato alle attivitĂ e iniziative di questâultimo.This fourth volume of the "Research of Gnoseology and Metaphysics" Centre, since the cover image, depicting young Europe on the back of the bull, manifests its main theme, which gives the work its title: Transitions. The violence of the rape, although undeniable and unstoppable, occurs slowly and gradually: this is precisely how we are in the process of becoming and, a fortiori, in the contingent, in a condition of "transition", a liminal condition in which the challenge is to face this "translation" (both in a physical-etymological and metaphorical sense) with all that it implies and with all its crepuscular and auroral aspects. A "transition" of which the human being is fully capable, as well as protagonist, as it adds to the change that abstractive capacity and self-awareness that allow him to ask himself "who am I?" (a âwhoâ that transforms into a metaphysical and existential âwhereâ in the tableau of being) and, in the slippage between the no longer-of-the-past and the not-yet-of-the-future, to manage this metamorphosis without losing himself and the world, transforming changing into "performing", that is, moving between and with forms and maintaining the "narrative thread" of existence. By shaping and molding, "acting-in-the-making-of-reality" and history (and not only retrospectively), the human being sets the conditions of possibility for a philosophy of action and liberation properly speaking. This is the thematic framework in which the multiple interventions of the volume are placed, to which the members and collaborators of the RGM Center contributed, as well as some internationally renowned scholars who participated in the activities and initiatives of the latter
More at stake in stem-cell patents
Austin Smith and others argue in
favour of patenting technologies
derived from human embryonic
stem cells (Nature 472, 418;
2011), a case still pending with
the European Court of Justice.
But there is more at stake than
European commercial interests.
In 1998, agreement was
reached in Europe under
Directive 98/44 not to recognize
patents involving the use of
human embryos for commercial
purposes (R. Hipp and P. Liese
Nature 474, 36; 2011).
The court must decide
whether the use of these cells
\u2018necessitates the prior destruction
of human embryos or their use
as base material\u2019, as the advocategeneral,
Yves Bot, has argued
(see go.nature.com/gsap8n).
If so, such use would seem to
fall beyond the scope of what is
legally patentable.
Smith et al. warn that
\u201cEuropean discoveries could
be translated into applications
elsewhere, at a potential cost
to the European citizen.\u201d This
begs the question of whether
patents, which may also be held
by non-European companies,
may sometimes impede wider
research cooperation (S. Rabin
Nature Biotechnol. 23, 817\u2013819;
2005).
In any case there will often
be some commercial risk
whenever Europe defends a
more rigorous ethical standard
than is defended elsewhere. This
risk is not itself an argument
against upholding the standard
prescribed by law.
Without prejudice to the
final judgment in this case, the
resolution of patent law is and
ought to be more than a question
of European commercial interest