The right to procreate and the legitimate scope of anti-natalist policies

Human procreation is normatively unique. It entails bringing into existence new persons who have the same moral standing as every other human being, and to whom a wide range of duties are owed by the State, their parents, and many others. In creating a child, the parent unilaterally creates new rights and obligations for other persons, as well as a lifetime of human needs and aspirations to be met from non-infinite collective resources. Nothing about the “natural” mechanism by which these normative changes and practical costs are imposed makes them automatically fair, or compossible with the pre-existing rights, needs, and obligations of others. Nonetheless, it is standardly assumed that individuals have a virtually absolute right to create biological children, and that anti-natalist interventions are for this reason generally impermissible. Works of human or civil rights activism, including publications by the United Nations, tend to briefly touch on the possibility of procreative harm due to human overpopulation, generally framed as a distant, unlikely, or misattributed threat. Procreative harm in the more immediate context of the family is typically ignored altogether. In this dissertation I provide a novel conceptualisation and philosophical account of a morally justified right to procreate. I employ a modified, empirically informed interests-based theory that grounds rights in components of human wellbeing as well as uncontroversial requirements of justice, and takes account of the complex moral conflicts and harms that may arise from procreation. The resulting right is much narrower and more caveated than is commonly assumed. I conclude that, far from ruling out anti-natalist interventions, respect for fundamental rights requires the implementation of appropriate anti-natalist policies to address moral conflicts involving the right to procreate and to preserve the longer-term viability of these basic protections

A genetic algorithm for finding realistic sea routes considering the weather

Kuhlemann S, Tierney K. A genetic algorithm for finding realistic sea routes considering the weather. Journal of heuristics. 2020;26:801–825.The weather has a major impact on the profitability, safety, and environmental sustainability of the routes sailed by seagoing vessels. The prevailing weather strongly influences the course of routes, affecting not only the safety of the crew, but also the fuel consumption and therefore the emissions of the vessel. Effective decision support is required to plan the route and the speed of the vessel considering the forecasted weather. We implement a genetic algorithm to minimize the fuel consumption of a vessel taking into account the two most important influences of weather on a ship: the wind and the waves. Our approach assists route planners in finding cost minimal routes that consider the weather, avoid specified areas, and meet arrival time constraints. Furthermore, it supports ship speed control to avoid areas with weather conditions that would result in high fuel costs or risk the safety of the vessel. The algorithm is evaluated for a variety of instances to show the impact of weather routing on the routes and the fuel and travel time savings that can be achieved with our approach. Including weather into the routing leads to a savings potential of over 10% of the fuel consumption. We show that ignoring the weather when constructing routes can lead to routes that cannot be sailed in practice. Furthermore, we evaluate our algorithm with stochastic weather data to show that it can provide high-quality routes under real conditions even with uncertain weather forecasts

Differenzierte Biografien, differenzierte Integration: ehemalige Nationalsozialisten in der Deutschen Wirtschaftskommission und den DDR-Regierungsdienststellen (1948-1957)

"The integration of former National Socialists in the 'German Economic Commission' and various GDR government bodies between 1948 and 1957 strongly depended on their loyalty to the new socialist state, their qualifications, their performance, several socio-political criteria, their combatant/ POW status in the war, and of course the degree of their entanglement with National Socialism before 1945. There was no general exoneration but a differentiated evaluation of the hundreds of former NSDAP members, SA and SS troops in the GDR administration as a study shows that is based on 150 cases. Since the ideological significance was extraordinarily high, the individual cases had to be weighted to formal principles of cadre policy and substantial interests of authoritarian rule. Basically, a tainted biography rather disqualified for a top-level position. However, on the lower and medium levels of the apparatus, individuals who met the functional demands, who seemed to have adopted a 'socialist consciousness', and who formally embraced the Marxist-Leninist doctrine were allowed to embark on amazing post-war careers in East Germany. This especially holds true for the economic management departments. Just like in West Germany, a typical excuse of the respective persons was their passiveness during the time of National Socialism and a solely nominal membership status in the above-mentioned NS organizations. Subjects to Allied denazification, their average offense had indeed been a minor one. Nevertheless there are various examples that persons tried to whitewash their past in order to qualify for the employment in the GDR state apparatus." (author's abstract

Nichtstandard in der elementaren Analysis – Mathematische, logische, philosophische und didaktische Studien zur Bedeutung der Nichtstandardanalysis in der Lehre

Die heutige Analysis ist aus der Infinitesimalrechnung von Leibniz und Newton hervorgegangen. Zwei Jahrhunderte lang gehörten Infinitesimalien, also unendlich kleine Größen, zum Handwerkszeug der Mathematiker und bescherten der neu entstandenen Disziplin einen außerordentlichen Aufschwung, bevor sie durch den Weierstraß'schen Grenzwertbegriff und die Konstruktion der reellen Zahlen durch Cantor und Dedekind entbehrlich schienen und schließlich aus der Analysis verbannt wurden. Der Preis für diese Finitisierung und Arithmetisierung der Analysis waren die Akzeptanz des aktual Unendlichen in Gestalt transfiniter Mengen sowie ein sperriger, wenig intuitiver Grenzwertformalismus, der Lernenden an Schulen und Hochschulen bis heute Schwierigkeiten bereitet. Mit Robinsons Non-standard Analysis hielten die Infinitesimalien in den 1960er Jahren – jetzt streng modelltheoretisch begründet – wieder Einzug in die Mathematik. In der Folge wurde Nichtstandardanalysis auf verschiedenen Gebieten innerhalb und außerhalb der Mathematik erfolgreich eingesetzt. Keisler erkannte das didaktische Potential von Robinsons Arbeit und entwarf in den 1970er Jahren eine axiomatische Einführung in die Analysis mit hyperreellen Zahlen ohne die modelltheoretischen Voraussetzungen. Seitdem gab es und gibt es bis heute Projekte mit dem Ziel, Nichtstandardanalysis für die Lehre zu nutzen. Trotz positiver Erfahrungen aus diesen Projekten blieb der Einfluss auf die Lehre insgesamt sehr gering. An den Hochschulen wird Analysis fast ausnahmslos rein auf der Grundlage des Weierstraß'schen Grenzwertbegriffs gelehrt, wobei die reellen Zahlen axiomatisch eingeführt werden. In der Schule zieht man sich zunehmend auf einen propädeutischen Grenzwertbegriff zurück. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist eine Standortbestimmung von Nichtstandard in der Analysis, speziell in der Lehre der Analysis – in mathematischer, logischer, philosophischer und stoffdidaktischer Hinsicht. Insbesondere soll untersucht werden, inwieweit sich unter diesen Aspekten Gründe für die zurückhaltende Aufnahme von Elementen der Nichtstandardanalysis in die Lehre ableiten lassen. Zu diesem Zweck werden zunächst verschiedene Zugänge zur Nichtstandardanalysis, ihre Adaptionen für elementare Einführungen sowie Erfahrungen aus der Lehre überblickend vorgestellt. Dieser Überblick ermöglicht es herauszuarbeiten, inwieweit gewohnte Sichtweisen (zum Beispiel auf die Mengenlehre, das Unendliche, die reellen und die natürlichen Zahlen oder das Kontinuum) durch Nichtstandard herausgefordert werden, welche Voraussetzungen Nichtstandard mathematisch benötigt und in welcher Weise und mit welchem Effekt Nichtstandardmethoden in der elementaren Analysis eingesetzt werden können. Um mögliche mathematische Probleme aufzudecken, die Vorbehalte gegenüber Nichtstandard begründen können, werden logische, modelltheoretische und mengentheoretische Untersuchungen diskutiert. Zur Analyse einer aus philosophischer Haltung heraus begründeten Ablehnung von Nichtstandard werden verschiedene Grundlagenpositionen sowie ontologische, epistemologische und anwendungsbezogene Fragen behandelt. Ein empirischer Teil dient als Beleg für einen aktuellen Meinungsquerschnitt, wie Nichtstandardanalysis von den Lehrenden der Analysis wahrgenommen und als Lehrstoff eingeschätzt wird. Quelle ist eine im Rahmen des Dissertationsprojektes per E-Mail durchgeführte und mittels einer qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse ausgewertete Befragung von Analysislehrenden an deutschen Hochschulen. Die Auswertung ist Ausgangspunkt für die Diskussion mathematischer und didaktischer Vorbehalte gegen den Einsatz von Nichtstandardanalysis in der Lehre. Im Vordergrund steht also die Frage nach der Rechtfertigung von Nichtstandardanalysis als Lehrstoff. Untersuchungen zu weitergehenden Fragestellungen und Aspekten der Auswertung, die man anschließen könnte, etwa hinsichtlich der Prozesse zur Festlegung dessen, was an Schule oder Hochschule gelehrt werden sollte, werden hier nicht weiterverfolgt.Today's analysis emerged from the infinitesimal calculus of Leibniz and Newton. For two centuries, infinitesimals, i.e. infinitely small quantities, belonged to the tools of the mathematicians and gave the newly developed discipline an extraordinary upswing, before they seemed dispensable and were finally banished from analysis due to the Weierstrassian concept of limit and the construction of the real numbers by Cantor and Dedekind. The price for this finitization and arithmetization of analysis was the acceptance of the actual infinite in the form of transfinite sets as well as a bulky, not very intuitive formalism of limits, which causes difficulties for learners at schools and universities to this day. With Robinson's Non-standard Analysis, the infinitesimals found their way back into mathematics in the 1960s – now strictly based on model theory. In the following years, non-standard analysis was used successfully in various areas inside and outside of mathematics. Keisler recognized the didactic potential of Robinson's work and in the 1970s designed an axiomatic introduction to analysis with hyperreal numbers without the model-theoretical prerequisites. Since then there have been, and still are, projects aimed at using non-standard analysis for teaching. Despite positive experiences from these projects, the overall impact on teaching remained very small. At universities, calculus is taught almost without exception purely on the basis of Weierstrass's concept of limit, with the real numbers being introduced axiomatically. In school, one increasingly retreats to a propaedeutic notion of limit. The aim of the present dissertation is to determine the position of the "non-standard" in analysis, especially in the teaching of analysis – in mathematical, logical and philosophical terms and in terms of subject specific didactics. In particular, we shall examine to what extent reasons for the reluctant inclusion of elements of non-standard analysis in teaching can be derived from these aspects. To this end, different approaches to non-standard analysis, their adaptations for elementary introductions and experiences from teaching are presented in an overview. This overview makes it possible to work out to what extent customary perspectives (for example on set theory, the infinite, the real and the natural numbers or the continuum) are challenged by non-standard analysis, which prerequisites non-standard analysis requires mathematically and in what way and with what effect non-standard methods can be used in the elementary analysis. In order to uncover possible mathematical problems that may account for reservations about non-standard analysis, we discuss logical, model-theoretical and set-theoretical investigations. To analyze a rejection of non-standard analysis based on a philosophical attitude, we deal with various foundational positions as well as ontological, epistemological and application-related questions. An empirical part serves as evidence for a current cross-section of opinions on how non-standard analysis is perceived by calculus instructors and assessed as a subject matter of teaching. The source is a survey of calculus instructors at German universities carried out by email as part of the dissertation project and evaluated using a qualitative content analysis. The evaluation is the starting point for the discussion of mathematical and didactic reservations against the use of non-standard analysis in teaching. In the foreground is the question of the justification of non-standard analysis as a subject matter of teaching. Studies on further questions and aspects of the evaluation that could follow, for example with regard to the processes for determining what should be taught at school or university, are not pursued further here

Complexity, creeping normalcy, and conceit: sexy and unsexy catastrophic risks

PURPOSE: This paper aims to consider few cognitive and conceptual obstacles to engagement with global catastrophic risks (GCRs). // DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The paper starts by considering cognitive biases that affect general thinking about GCRs, before questioning whether existential risks really are dramatically more pressing than other GCRs. It then sets out a novel typology of GCRs – sexy vs unsexy risks – before considering a particularly unsexy risk, overpopulation. // FINDINGS: It is proposed that many risks commonly regarded as existential are “sexy” risks, while certain other GCRs are comparatively “unsexy.” In addition, it is suggested that a combination of complexity, cognitive biases and a hubris-laden failure of imagination leads us to neglect the most unsexy and pervasive of all GCRs: human overpopulation. The paper concludes with a tentative conceptualisation of overpopulation as a pattern of risking. // ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The paper proposes and conceptualises two new concepts, sexy and unsexy catastrophic risks, as well as a new conceptualisation of overpopulation as a pattern of risking

Leibniz on bodies and infinities: rerum natura and mathematical fictions

The way Leibniz applied his philosophy to mathematics has been the subject of longstanding debates. A key piece of evidence is his letter to Masson on bodies. We offer an interpretation of this often misunderstood text, dealing with the status of infinite divisibility in nature, rather than in mathematics. In line with this distinction, we offer a reading of the fictionality of infinitesimals. The letter has been claimed to support a reading of infinitesimals according to which they are logical fictions, contradictory in their definition, and thus absolutely impossible. The advocates of such a reading have lumped infinitesimals with infinite wholes, which are rejected by Leibniz as contradicting the partwhole principle. Far from supporting this reading, the letter is arguably consistent with the view that infinitesimals, as inassignable quantities, are mentis fictiones, i.e., (well-founded) fictions usable in mathematics, but possibly contrary to the Leibnizian principle of the harmony of things and not necessarily idealizing anything in rerum natura. Unlike infinite wholes, infinitesimals - as well as imaginary roots and other well-founded fictions - may involve accidental (as opposed to absolute) impossibilities, in accordance with the Leibnizian theories of knowledge and modality

Miocene siliciclastic deposits of Naxos Island: Geodynamic and environmental implications for the evolution of the southern Aegean Sea (Greece)

An interdisciplinary study has been carried out on Naxos Island, located in the southern Aegean Sea (Greece), which shows Miocene geodynamic and environmental changes in a classic example of a collapsing orogen. Early to Mid-Miocene siliciclastic deposits on Naxos have been shed from an uplifting mountainous realm in the south, which included a patchwork of at least four source terrains of different thermal histories.Petrography of pebbles suggests that the source units formed part of a passivecontinental margin succession (external Pelagonian unit), and an ophiolite succession mainly of deep-water cherts and limestones deposited on basalt substratum (Pindos unit). The continental margin source contributed rounded zircon crystals of Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous age and broadly scattering Paleozoic zircon fission-track cooling ages. A distal pebble assemblage of Paleogene shallow-water carbonates passing into flysch-like, mixed calcarenitic and siliciclastic components with volcanic arc components is subordinately present. High-grade metamorphic components from the nearby metamorphic core complex are not present. The depositional evolution reflects increasing relief and, in some parts, a fluvial succession with rhythmic channel deposition, possibly due to runoff variability forced by orbital cyclicity. Upsection, the depositional trend indicates increasing seasonality and decreasing humidity in the source region. The Miocene sedimentary succession has been deposited on an ophiolite nappe. Juxtaposition of this ophiolite nappe occurred as an extensional allochthon during large-scale extension in the Aegean region at the margins of an exhuming metamorphic core complex

The imprint of hydroclimate, urbanization and catchment connectivity on the stable isotope dynamics of a large river in Berlin, Germany

Funding Information: This study was funded through the German Research Foundation (DFG) as part of the Research Training Group “Urban Water Interfaces” (UWI; GRK2032/2) and the Einstein Foundation as part of the “Modelling surface and groundwater with isotopes in urban catchments” (MOSAIC) project. Funding was also received through the Einstein Research Unit “Climate and Water under Change“ from the Einstein Foundation Berlin and Berlin University Alliance. We thank all colleagues involved in the daily precipitation and weekly stream water sampling, in particular Esther Brakkee, Jan Christopher, Adrian Dahlmann, David Dubbert, Larissa Lachmann and Anna Wieland. Esther Brakkee is further thanked for participating in the soil SUEO sampling and contributing samples from the wider area around the site. We also thank David Dubbert for running the isotope analysis and Hauke Dämpfling for maintaining the field installations at the SUEO. Aaron Smith is thanked for his help with the data analysis. Finally, we thank the Berlin Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection for supporting this project and providing the data needed to put our results into a wider perspective.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Reformationserinnerung im Wandel: Zur Rezeptionsgeschichte Martin Luthers und der „deutschen“ Reformation 1817 bis 2017

Das Thema, das hier zu behandeln ist, erhält seine Bedeutung im Kontext des 500-jährigen Reformationsjubiläums, über dessen Bedeutung man sich in Kirche und Staat, Kultur und Gesellschaft weitgehend einig zu sein scheint. Es ist darüber hinaus von Interesse, weil es sich in Debatten über das Problem der Erinnerung oder auch Erinnerungskulturen einfügt, die wir in den Kulturwissenschaften seit langem führen. Gemeint ist, dass sich historische Erinnerung nicht nur als individuelle Vergegenwärtigung von Vergangenheit oder – in ihrer elaborierten Form – als „objektivierte“, wissenschaftlichen Ansprüchen genügende Geschichtsschreibung, sondern, jenseits von beidem, in populären wie auch kollektiven Formen, unter unterschiedlichen Konstellationen und im Kontext differierender gesellschaftlicher Interessenlagen denken lässt. Wenn wir in der Geschichtswissenschaft und Geschichtsdidaktik heute von Erinnerungskultur(en) reden, so sind damit in der Regel hochaufwendige Prozeduren eines sozialen Erinnerns gemeint, dem für unterschiedliche gesellschaftliche Gruppen oder auch politische Systeme eine wichtige Funktion zukommt. Wir fragen in diesen Zusammenhängen dann vor allem, zu welchen Anlässen, mit welchen Zielen, auch mit welchen Strategien und Mitteln sich bestimmte Gruppen und Gesellschaften, seien sie politisch oder sozial, kulturell oder religiös motiviert, an bestimmte Ereignisse oder auch historische Entwicklungen erinnern. Dabei werden gemeinhin sehr unterschiedliche Funktionen und Prinzipien des Erinnerungsgeschehens, etwa die Frage nach dem Verhältnis von Archivierung und Aktualisierung des Vergangenen, der Organisiertheit der Erinnerung, der Verbindlichkeit der Überzeugungen sowie der Verfasstheit von sozialen Gruppen, diskutiert. [Aus der Einleitung...