•  1734
    The prospective introduction of autonomous cars into public traffic raises the question of how such systems should behave when an accident is inevitable. Due to concerns with self-interest and liberal legitimacy that have become paramount in the emerging debate, a contractarian framework seems to provide a particularly attractive means of approaching this problem. We examine one such attempt, which derives a harm minimisation rule from the assumptions of rational self-interest and ignorance of o…Read more
  •  33
    Ethical Arguments Concerning Human-Animal Chimera Research: A Systematic Review
    with Koko Kwisda and Lucie White
    BMC Medical Ethics 21 1-14. 2020.
    The burgeoning field of biomedical research involving the mixture of human and animal materials has attracted significant ethical controversy. Due to the many dimensions of potential ethical conflict involved in this type of research, and the wide variety of research projects under discussion, it is difficult to obtain an overview of the ethical debate. This paper attempts to remedy this by providing a systematic review of ethical reasons in academic publications on human-animal chimera research…Read more
  •  10
    Some Remarks Concerning Free Will and Evolutionary Theory
    American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 6 (2): 24-26. 2015.
  •  3
    Einführung in die philosophische Ethik
    Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. 2018.
    Wie lassen sich Moralsysteme begründen oder widerlegen? Dietmar Hübner diskutiert verschiedene ethische Konzeptionen von der Tugendethik über die Deontologie bis hin zur Teleologie. Langjährige Lehrerfahrung, der Ertrag zahlreicher Vorlesungen sowie Rückmeldungen vieler Studierender sind in die Konzeption dieses Lehrbuchs eingeflossen. Jedes Kapitel enthält Fragen und Aufgaben zur Rekapitulation und Anwendung der vermittelten Inhalte; Lösungsvorschläge sind im Internet abrufbar.
  •  12
    Über Eskalation
    Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 61 (1): 43-67. 2013.
    Escalation is commonly understood as the constant aggravation of mutual sanctions between two conflicting parties. While escalations have been intensively explored within the empirical sciences, philosophy and ethics have scarcely touched upon the issue up to now. This paper tries to fill this gap by analysing the normative structure that underlies escalations and determines their psychosocial dynamics. The experience of injustice suffered by the opponent and a resulting desire to perform unjust…Read more
  •  36
    Human-Animal Chimeras and Hybrids: An Ethical Paradox behind Moral Confusion?
    Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 43 (2): 187-210. 2018.
    The prospect of creating and using human–animal chimeras and hybrids that are significantly human-like in their composition, phenotype, cognition, or behavior meets with divergent moral judgments: on the one side, it is claimed that such beings might be candidates for human-analogous rights to protection and care; on the other side, it is supposed that their existence might disturb fundamental natural and social orders. This paper tries to show that both positions are paradoxically intertwined: …Read more
  •  745
    Three Remarks on “Reflective Equilibrium“
    Philosophical Inquiry 41 (1): 11-40. 2017.
    John Rawls’ “reflective equilibrium” ranges amongst the most popular conceptions in contemporary ethics when it comes to the basic methodological question of how to justify and trade off different normative positions and attitudes. Even where Rawls’ specific contractualist account is not adhered to, “reflective equilibrium” is readily adopted as the guiding idea of coherentist approaches, seeking moral justification not in a purely deductive or inductive manner, but in some balancing procedure t…Read more
  •  781
    Gibt es eine objektive Gegenwart?: Zur Metaphysik der Zeit
    Philosophisches Jahrbuch 116 (2): 269-293. 2009.
    Since J. McTaggart’s paper on “The Unreality of Time” the opposition of “A-theorists” and “B-theorists” establishes a focal point in the modern debate on the metaphysics of time: While “A-theorists” claim the existence of an objective present, moving along time positions, “B-theorists” maintain that time is just a set of ontologically equivalent coordinates, “now” being merely the indexical of the speaker’s position. Contemporary attempts to resolve the issue by resorting to the analysis of lang…Read more
  •  1312
    Neurosurgery for Psychopaths? An Ethical Analysis
    American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 7 (3): 140-149. 2016.
    Recent developments in neuroscience have inspired proposals to perform deep brain stimulation on psychopathic detainees. We contend that these proposals cannot meet important ethical requirements that hold for both medical research and therapy. After providing a rough overview of key aspects of psychopathy and the prospects of tackling this condition via deep brain stimulation, we proceed to an ethical assessment of such measures, referring closely to the distinctive features of psychopathic per…Read more
  •  17
    Der Ort der Macht. Potestas und auctoritas als Deutungslinien für Markt und Medien
    Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 58 (3): 395-415. 2010.
    The concept of power is not restricted to the generally understood idea of domination, as mainly implemented in the governmental structures of society. Rather, power is also to be found within other community spheres, where it adopts highly divergent forms. This plurality often impedes its reliable identification and precise labeling. However, the classical concepts of power, potestas and auctoritas, can be widened to more comprehensive perspectives that ultimately promise to embrace modern soci…Read more
  •  19
    Genetic Testing and Private Insurance – A Case of “Selling One’s Body”?
    Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 9 (1): 43-55. 2005.
    Arguments against the possible use of genetic test results in private health and life insurance predominantly refer to the problem of certain gene carriers failing to obtain affordable insurance cover. However, some moral intuitions speaking against this practice seem to be more fundamental than mere concerns about adverse distributional effects. In their perspective, the central ethical problem is not that some people might fail to get insurance cover because of their ‘bad genes’, but rather th…Read more
  •  3
    Kersting, Theorien der sozialen Gerechtigkeit (review)
    Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Philosophie 26 (3): 249-254. 2001.
  •  157
    Der Ort der Macht
    Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 58 (3). 2010.
    The concept of power is not restricted to the usual idea of domination, as mainly implemented in the governmental structures of society. Rather, power also occurs at other places of a com-munity, adopting highly divergent forms. This plurality often impedes its reliable identification and precise labeling. However, the classical concepts of power, potestas and auctoritas, can be widened to more comprehensive perspectives that eventually promise to embrace modern societal places of power such as …Read more
  •  752
    Das Wiskott-Aldrich-Syndrom (WAS), ein genetisch bedingter Immundefekt mit klinischer Manifestation im Kleinkindalter, wird voraussichtlich in näherer Zukunft erstmals versuchsweise durch eine somatische Gentherapie behandelt werden. Im vor- liegenden Beitrag werden die wichtigsten medizinisch-naturwissenschaftlichen Fakten dieses Krankheitsbildes sowie die bisherigen Erfahrungen mit somatischen Gentherapien bei anderen Immunmangelsyndromen ausführlich dargestellt. Sodann erfolgt eine ethische…Read more
  •  6
    English summary: Philosophy of history is a comparatively young discipline. Beginning with the Enlightenment the historical is viewed as a philosophic topic. Through German Idealism it is emphatically placed at the centre of attention. The idealistic perspective on history was important for further development. The author presents the integral components of Kant's, Fichte's, Schelling's and Hegel's philosophy of history. He explains Kant's regulative idea on advancement, Fichte's model of the de…Read more
  •  5
    Würdeschutz und Lebensschutz: Zu ihrem Verhältnis bei Menschen, Tieren und Embryonen
    Jahrbuch für Wissenschaft Und Ethik 15 (1): 35-68. 2010.
    Würdeschutz und Lebensschutz werden insbesondere in der angewandten Ethik regelmäßig als fundamentale Beurteilungsprinzipien herangezogen. Das genaue Verhältnis dieser beiden normativen Aspekte erweist sich allerdings als unsicher: Oftmals scheinen Würdeverletzungen gerade in einer unberechtigten Beeinträchtigung von anderen Rechtsgütern wie Leben oder Gesundheit, auch Eigentum oder Ansehen zu bestehen. Darüber hinaus aber mag es Würdeverletzungen geben, die sich nicht auf eine verfehlte Missach…Read more
  •  602
    Natürlichkeitsargumente haben allgemein in der Bioethik und speziell in der Debatte um Enhancement und Anthropotechnik keinen guten Ruf. Neben dem formalen Vorwurf, einen naturalistischen Fehlschluss zu begehen, werden sie mit dem inhaltli-chen Einwand konfrontiert, eine falsche Auffassung von menschlicher Natur zugrunde zu legen: Recht verstanden definiere sich diese menschliche Natur nicht durch eine biologische Substanz, die durch biotechnische Eingriffe korrumpiert werden könnte, sondern dur…Read more