Björn Freter

Man suffers from a very particular fate, namely that of being besieged by questions which he cannot answer and cannot ignore either. The ability to pose questions like these is a key characteristic of the fundamental existential situation of mankind. Every person must find his or her own particular method of coping with such questions. This makes up a significant part of the human maturing process. People with dementia, having already found their personal solution to cope with the problem of these unanswerable questions, radically stumble into this existential situation once again. The problem of this repetition is that the people with dementia can only make limited use, if indeed any use at all, of their previously successful biographical strategies. The drama of human existence as such thus repeats itself within a person with dementia. We must recognise the seriousness of this task. We thus must support people with dementia in coping existentially with this renewed task in the best possible way. The existential dignity of this task is no different from that of a young person. This insight is very important for the care of patients: people with dementia should be recognised as a people in an existential situation.

PEGIDA befürchtet die Abschaffung des deutschen Volkes. Getreu dem Thema unserer Ausgabe wollen wir ›hinter die Kulissen‹ dieser Befürchtung blicken und einen ernsthaften Versuch unternehmen, PEGIDA zu verstehen. Wir werden dabei – zumindest ausgehend von unserer Interpretationsgrundlage – allerdings nicht die um poli-tische deutsche Identität besorgten Bürger finden, sondern einen Bürger, den es schlicht an Bereitschaft fehlt, ihre Werte zu verteidigen. Das Paradoxon, politisch aktiv zu sein, und Politik im Gleichen zu boykottieren, ruht auf einer – absichtlichen? – Verwechslung von Freiheit des Handelns und Freiheit des Denkens.

According to Democritus' anthropogeny is a microcosmic consequence within the process of cosmogony. However, the case of man is a peculiarity: man, this atom complex, is well aware of himself, yet is not aware of what he must do. Man does not naturally do that which promotes the harmonious ordering of his atoms. We must create a second nature. Now it becomes possible for us to be as we must be according to our first nature. Democritus is the is first thinker who explains to us what our nature is and who, from our being, derives an ought: he who wishes to do the right thing for both himself and others finds himself subject to the ought requirement to do that which brings the most calm to the atoms. This is a direct connection between being and ought, an extravagant mechanical existentialism.