Has Vagueness Really No Function in Law?

When the United States Supreme Court used the expression “with all deliberate speed” in the case Brown v. Board of Education, it did so presumably because of its vagueness. Many jurists, economists, linguists, and philosophers accordingly assume that vagueness can be strategically used to one’s advantage. Roy Sorensen has cast doubt on this assumption by strictly differentiating between vagueness and generality. Indeed, most arguments for the value of vagueness go through only when vagueness is confused with generality. Sorensen claims that vagueness – correctly understood – has no function in law inter alia because judges lie systematically when confronted with borderline cases. I argue that both claims are wrong. First, judges do not need to resort to lying when adjudicating borderline cases, and even if they had to, this would not render vagueness useless. Secondly, vagueness has several important functions in law such as the reduction of decision costs and the delegation of power. Although many functions commonly attributed to the vagueness of legal expressions are in fact due to their generality or other semantic properties, vagueness has at least these two functions in law

What is fake news?

Recently, the term «fake news» has become ubiquitous in political and public discourse and the media. Despite its omnipresence, however, it is anything but clear what fake news is. An adequate and comprehensive definition of fake news is called for. We take steps towards this goal by providing a systematic account of fake news that makes the phenomenon tangible, rehabilitates the use of the term, and helps us to set fake news apart from related phenomena. (You can email us for a penultimate draft of this paper.

Meinungsfreiheit und die kommunikative Strategie der Rechtspopulisten

Um die Presse- und Meinungsfreiheit wird Tag für Tag gerungen - auch in Deutschland, wo sie im Grundgesetz verankert ist. Was darf man sagen? Wie weit geht die Meinungsfreiheit? Wo endet die Toleranz? Diese Fragen müssen immer wieder auf ein Neues beantwortet werden. Auch in der Demokratie wird die Meinungsfreiheit bedroht. Politscher Populismus und verrohte Kommunikation im Internet stellen das Grundrecht auf die Probe. Rechtsextremisten inszenieren sich als Opfer einer vermeintlichen Meinungsdiktatur, Hasskommentare zerstören die Streitkultur und provozieren neue Gesetze, die im schlechtesten Fall ihrerseits die Meinungsfreiheit aushöhlen. Gut verständlich beschreiben Experten unterschiedlicher Disziplinen die Dimensionen und Herausforderungen der Meinungsfreiheit. Daraus ergibt sich eine facettenreiche Darstellung zu einem der großen Themen unserer Zeit

Argumentative Patterns of Right-Wing Populism

Populism has become one of the most intensely discussed topics in both public debate and academic research. So far there has been no systematic argumentation theoretic analysis of populism, however. This paper is intended to provide first steps towards such an analysis by giving a full argumentation theoretic reconstruction of the political manifesto of the German right-wing populist party “Alternative for Germany” (AfD). This allows to draw preliminary conclusions about the AfD’s argumentative strategy as exemplary for right-wing populism

Warum Vagheit nicht Unwissen ist

Vertreter der epistemischen Theorie kommen darin überein, dass Vagheit Unwissen ist und die Zweiwertigkeit der klassischen Logik auch im Angesicht des Sorites-Paradoxes beibehalten werden kann. In der vorliegenden Arbeit zeige ich auf, warum die epistemische Theorie zum Scheitern verurteilt ist. Dabei unterziehe ich die Ansätze von James Cargile, Richmond Campbell, Roy Sorensen und Timothy Williamson einer ausführlichen kritischen Analyse. Einerseits widerlege ich die konkreten Argumente für die Annahme des Epistemizismus und untersuche andererseits die Implikationen daraus für Theorien der Wahrheit, Bezugnahme und Bedeutung. Das deutliche Ergebnis der Analyse besteht in der Konklusion, dass die epistemische Theorie philosophisch unhaltbar ist

Warum Vagheit nicht Unwissen ist

Vertreter der epistemischen Theorie kommen darin überein, dass Vagheit Unwissen ist und die Zweiwertigkeit der klassischen Logik auch im Angesicht des Sorites-Paradoxes beibehalten werden kann. In der vorliegenden Arbeit zeige ich auf, warum die epistemische Theorie zum Scheitern verurteilt ist. Dabei unterziehe ich die Ansätze von James Cargile, Richmond Campbell, Roy Sorensen und Timothy Williamson einer ausführlichen kritischen Analyse. Einerseits widerlege ich die konkreten Argumente für die Annahme des Epistemizismus und untersuche andererseits die Implikationen daraus für Theorien der Wahrheit, Bezugnahme und Bedeutung. Das deutliche Ergebnis der Analyse besteht in der Konklusion, dass die epistemische Theorie philosophisch unhaltbar ist

Thickness dependence of electron-electron interactions in topological p-n junctions

Electron-electron interactions in topological p-n junctions consisting of vertically stacked topological insulators are investigated. n-type Bi2Te3 and p-type Sb2Te3 of varying relative thicknesses are deposited using molecular beam epitaxy and their electronic properties measured using low-temperature transport. The screening factor is observed to decrease with increasing sample thickness, a finding which is corroborated by semi-classical Boltzmann theory. The number of two-dimensional states determined from electron-electron interactions is larger compared to the number obtained from weak-antilocalization, in line with earlier experiments using single layers.Comment: 38 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl

Neuroimaging studies of psychological interventions for mood and anxiety disorders: empirical and methodological review.

This article reviews the methods and results of published neuroimaging studies of the effects of structured psychological interventions for mood and anxiety disorders. The results are consistent with neural models of improved affective- and self-regulation, as evidenced by psychotherapeutic modulation of brain metabolic activity within the dorsolateral, ventrolateral, and medial prefrontal cortices, the anterior cingulate, the posterior cingulate/precuneus, and the insular cortices. Specific recommendations for future studies are outlined, and the clinical and theoretical significance of this research is discussed

On the Use of YouTube, Digital Games, Argument Maps, and Digital Feedback in Teaching Philosophy

We give an overview of the methodological possibilities of some important digital tools for teaching philosophy. Several didactically applicable methods have evolved in digital culture, including their implicit methodologies, theories about how these methods may be used. These methodologies are already applied by philosophers today and have their benefits and justifications in philosophy classes as well. They can help to solve known problems of philosophy education. We discuss problems of incomprehensibility and their possible solutions through digital explanations in pod- and videocasts such as YouTube; problems of interaction, motivation, and immersion that digital games and gamification may solve; problems of the complexity of philosophical content and digital concept- and argument-maps to deal with these; problems of implicitness and the possibility to make implicit things in philosophy class explicit through indirect feedback tools

Meta-analysis of alexithymia in posttraumatic stress disorder.

The authors present a meta-analysis investigating the prevalence of alexithymia in 12 studies encompassing 1,095 individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A large effect size was found associating PTSD with alexithymia. Effect sizes were higher in studies of male combat PTSD samples in comparison with studies of other PTSD samples. Clinical and research directions are discussed