How Common is Common Human Reason?:The Plurality of Moral Perspectives and Kant’s Ethics

In his practical philosophy, Kant aims to systematize and ground a conception of morality that every human being already in some form is supposedly committed to in virtue of her common human reason. While Kantians especially in the last few years have explicitly acknowledged the central role of common human reason for a correct understanding of Kant’s ethics, there has been very little detailed critical discussion of the very notion of a common human reason as Kant envisages it. Sticker critically discusses in what ways Kant is committed to the notion that there are certain rational insights and rational capacities that all humans share, and thus investigates critically how Kant thinks moral normativity appears to the common human being, the rational agent who did not enjoy special education or philosophical training

Neurophysiological evidence for rapid processing of verbal and gestural information in understanding communicative actions

During everyday social interaction, gestures are a fundamental part of human communication. The communicative pragmatic role of hand gestures and their interaction with spoken language has been documented at the earliest stage of language development, in which two types of indexical gestures are most prominent: the pointing gesture for directing attention to objects and the give-me gesture for making requests. Here we study, in adult human participants, the neurophysiological signatures of gestural-linguistic acts of communicating the pragmatic intentions of naming and requesting by simultaneously presenting written words and gestures. Already at ~150 ms, brain responses diverged between naming and request actions expressed by word-gesture combination, whereas the same gestures presented in isolation elicited their earliest neurophysiological dissociations significantly later (at ~210 ms). There was an early enhancement of request-evoked brain activity as compared with naming, which was due to sources in the frontocentral cortex, consistent with access to action knowledge in request understanding. In addition, an enhanced N400-like response indicated late semantic integration of gesture-language interaction. The present study demonstrates that word-gesture combinations used to express communicative pragmatic intentions speed up the brain correlates of comprehension processes – compared with gesture-only understanding – thereby calling into question current serial linguistic models viewing pragmatic function decoding at the end of a language comprehension cascade. Instead, information about the social-interactive role of communicative acts is processed instantaneously

Wie zentral sind zentrale Prüfungen? Abschlussprüfungen am Ende der Sekundarstufe II im nationalen und internationalen Vergleich

Das Zentralabitur ist in fast allen Ländern der BRD als Instrument der Standardsicherung eingeführt, gleichwohl wurde es mit teils deutlichen organisatorischen Unterschieden implementiert. Die Verfahren werden dargestellt und kategoriengeleitet verglichen sowie in einen Vergleich von 15 OECD-Mitgliedstaaten mit Zentralprüfungen am Ende der Sekundarstufe II eingeordnet. Diese Referenzperspektive offenbart die Bedeutung des Standardisierungsgrades von Prüfungen gegenüber dem Konzept "Zentralisierung" im Hinblick auf differenzierende Analysen der Steuerungswirkungen dieses Reformelementes auf schulische und unterrichtliche Prozesse. (DIPF/Orig.)In almost all of the German Laender, the centrally standardized "Abitur" (school leaving certificate and university entrance qualification) has been introduced as an instrument of standard maintenance; however, the differences in its implementation are often quite significant. The procedures are described and compared with regard to specific categories and are then, in turn, compared to 15 OECD countries with centrally standardized exit exams at the end of the upper secondary school level. This reference-guided perspective reveals the significance of the degree of standardization of exams as opposed to the concept of "centralization" with regard to differentiating analyses of the effects of control achieved through this reform element on the level of both school-related and teaching-related processes. (DIPF/Orig.

Effects of statewide exit exams in a multi-level school system. An interim report of international and national findings and research desiderata

Zentrale Abschlussprüfungen sind zu einem zentralen Steuerungsinstrument am Ende der Sekundarstufen I und II in Deutschland geworden. Im Beitrag wird im Hinblick auf intendierte und nicht intendierte Wirkungen der aktuelle Forschungsstand in Deutschland mit internationalen Vergleichsperspektiven systematisiert. Dabei werden Befunde auf bildungspolitischer/ administrativer, schulischer und unterrichtlicher Ebene sowie mit Blick auf Lernerträge im Sinne einer Zwischenbilanz zu einem relativ jungen Forschungsbereich berichtet. Es zeigen sich länder-, fach- und kursspezifische Unterschiede, die keinen generellen Zentralprüfungseffekt nahelegen. In diesem Zusammenhang sollte in künftigen Forschungen die Heterogenität der Prüfungsverfahren stärker berücksichtigt werden. (DIPF/Orig.)Statewide exit exams have become a central governance instrument at the end of secondary schooling in Germany. In the article, the current state of research in Germany is systematized from an international comparative perspective in relation to intended and unintended effects. Findings regarding state exam policies and effects at the school and instructional level are presented as an interim report on a comparably young field of research. The findings show differences by states, subjects and courses which suggest that there is no general effect of statewide exams. In this context, future research should account for the heterogeneity of exam procedures to a greater degree. (DIPF/orig.

How many years until abitur in German upper secondary schooling? – Taking stock in the context of current school duration debates

Die Reduzierung der Schuljahre bis zum Erwerb des Abiturs (Stichwort G8) gehört zu den wichtigsten schulstrukturellen Veränderungen der vergangenen Jahre und ist ein Element der in der letzten Dekade implementierten zeitlichen Vorverlagerung und Verdichtung institutionalisierter Bildungsprozesse. Inwieweit die mit den zeitlichen Veränderungen einhergehenden systemischen Kontextbedingungen jedoch schulische und unterrichtliche Prozesse und Ergebnisse beeinflussen und welche Folgen sich für die unmittelbar betroffenen Akteure (Lehrkräfte, Schülerinnen und Schüler und ihre Familien) ergeben, ist bislang nur unzureichend untersucht worden. Der Beitrag liefert einen Überblick zu dem bislang nur wenig erschlossenen Themenfeld der gymnasialen Schulzeitverkürzung: Nach einem Rückblick auf historische Entwicklungslinien werden normative Diskurse zur Schulzeitverkürzung dargelegt, um diese anschließend mit dem derzeitigen Stand der Forschung zu konfrontieren. Eine Analyse unterschiedlicher Organisationsmodelle der Schulzeitverkürzung sowie ein Ausblick auf aktuelle Entwicklungen runden den Beitrag ab. (DIPF/Orig.)Reducing the number of school years until graduation from academic-track secondary schooling (“G8”) has been one of the most important structural changes to schooling in the past few years. The reduction is one element of more compressed and accelerated processes in institutional education implemented over the last decade. The extent to which the changes in the systemic context of schooling affect organizational and instructional processes and results, or the school actors concerned (teachers, pupils and their families), has only been insufficiently investigated so far. This contribution provides an overview of this barely investigated topic. Following a review of the historical developments, the normative debates regarding reduced school time will be presented and then compared with the current state of research. The paper closes with an analysis of different models for organizing the reduction of school years and an outlook on current developments. (DIPF/orig.

Philosophie als analytische Philosophie

Beckermann A. Philosophie als analytische Philosophie. In: van Ackeren M, Kobusch T, Müller J, eds. Warum noch Philosophie?. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter; 2011: 105-125