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1Empathy as a means to understand peoplePhilosophical Explorations 27 (2): 157-170. 2024.Misunderstanding other people can be interpreted as the result of an insufficient performance of people’s skills to understand other persons and their experiences. But what does understand mean in these contexts? And what are the relevant skills that need to be engaged to successfully understand other people? I argue that understanding other people is a form of recognition of the epistemic validity of another person’s perspective. I claim that minimal understanding does not require an endorsemen…Read more
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5SympathyIn Frauke Höntzsch (ed.), Mill-Handbuch: Leben – Werk – Wirkung, J.b. Metzler. pp. 345-350. 2023.Mit dem Ausdruck ‚sympathy‘ bezeichnet Mill die menschliche Fähigkeit, zu fühlen, was andere fühlen; oder allgemeiner, Zugang zum subjektiven Erleben Anderer zu erlangen. Sowohl Einfühlung als auch Mitfühlen sind in dieser Idee integriert. Für Mill ist ‚sympathy‘ eine wesentliche Voraussetzung der menschlichen Moralität. Allerdings gilt es, ‚sympathy‘ zur Fähigkeit auszubilden, genuin moralische Empfindungen zu zeigen. Erst dann sind stabile Moraldispositionen zu erwarten und damit letztlich die…Read more
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1IndividualitätIn Frauke Höntzsch (ed.), Mill-Handbuch: Leben – Werk – Wirkung, J.b. Metzler. pp. 283-288. 2023.Individualität stellt für Mill eine Quelle und gleichzeitig ein Ziel individuellen und gesellschaftlichen Fortschritts dar. Individualität ist ein Element des Wohlergehens, wie die Überschrift des dritten Kapitels seiner Freiheitsschrift festhält. Individualität ist somit ein vorrangiges Ziel der Erziehung, Bildung und guten Regierung. Zudem kann Individualität, ausgedrückt in verschiedensten Lebensexperimenten, die Entwicklung einer Gesellschaft voranbringen. Es sollte insofern nicht überrasche…Read more
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1Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835)In Frauke Höntzsch (ed.), Mill-Handbuch: Leben – Werk – Wirkung, J.b. Metzler. pp. 35-40. 2023.Wilhelm von HumboldtHumboldt, Wilhelm von war ein berühmter preußischer Gelehrter und Bildungsreformer. Sein posthum veröffentlichtes Werk Ideen zu einem Entwurf, die Grenzen der Wirksamkeit des Staates zu beschränken wird in Mills Schrift On Liberty und in seiner Autobiography mehrfach zustimmend erwähnt und zitiert. Selbst das Epigraph, welches Mill als Motto seiner Freiheitsschrift voranstellt, stammt von Humboldt: „The grand, leading principle, towards which every argument unfolded in these …Read more
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11Empathy with Future Generations?Topoi 43 (1): 29-37. 2024.In this paper, I analyse whether empathy with future generations is feasible and whether it is a potentially useful instrument in effectively providing resources for future generations. I argue that empathy with future generations is possible, that it likely leads to a form of minimal concern, and that it can help in solving the relevant motivational problem. The most significant hurdle is not so much to do with achieving the required normative recognition of future generations, but with epistem…Read more
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14Scaffolding athletes’ choices and performance in risky and uncertain circumstancesSport, Ethics and Philosophy 1-13. forthcoming.In this paper, I discuss the risks of brain injuries in collision and contact sports and make a proposal to address them without limiting the autonomy of athletes. I aim to analyse the circumstances of profound uncertainty that athletes are facing in terms of the long-term impact of brain injuries. My strategy is to circumvent drastic measures in dealing with such risks, such as banning certain sports or changing their nature by introducing constitutive rule changes, and to scaffold individual a…Read more
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26Health as Complete Well-Being: The WHO Definition and BeyondPublic Health Ethics 16 (3): 210-218. 2023.The paper defends the World Health Organisation (WHO) definition of health against widespread criticism. The common objections are due to a possible misinterpretation of the word complete in the descriptor of health as ‘complete physical, mental and social well-being’. Complete here does not necessarily refer to perfect well-being but can alternatively mean exhaustive well-being, that is, containing all its constitutive features. In line with the alternative reading, I argue that the WHO definit…Read more
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32Why Health-enhancing Nudges FailHealth Care Analysis 32 (1): 33-46. 2023.Nudges are means to influence the will formation of people to make specific choices more likely. My focus is on nudges that are supposed to improve the health condition of individuals and populations over and above the direct prevention of disease. I point out epistemic and moral problems with these types of nudges, which lead to my conclusion that health-enhancing nudges fail. They fail because we cannot know which choices enhance individual health—properly understood in a holistic way—and beca…Read more
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7The Legacy of AntipsychiatryIn Thomas Schramme & Johannes Thome (eds.), Philosophy and Psychiatry, De Gruyter. pp. 94-119. 2003.Antipsychiatry is famous - and infamous - for its claim that there is no such affliction as mental illness. If this proved to be true, the status of psychiatry would change radically. The field of psychiatry would no longer be accepted by many as an integral part of medicine because the primary task of medicine is to cure the ill. The statement that there is no such thing as mental illness appears so highly radical that many hold doubts as to its plausibility. Indeed, it could well be viewed as …Read more
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21Coercive Threats and Offers in PsychiatryIn Thomas Schramme & Johannes Thome (eds.), Philosophy and Psychiatry, De Gruyter. pp. 357-369. 2003.If a patient complies voluntarily with a certain proposal, we generally regard the treatment as legitimate. But a competent patient may also assent to a certain treatment only because he was compelled to do so. Influences on the formation of his decision may render his choice contrary to his will. It is my aim to focus on these particular forms of coercion which are often neglected in discussions of informed consent.
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2Introduction: The Many Potentials for Philosophy of PsychiatryIn Thomas Schramme & Johannes Thome (eds.), Philosophy and Psychiatry, De Gruyter. pp. 1-24. 2003.
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23Sport-related concussion research agenda beyond medical science: culture, ethics, science, policyJournal of Medical Ethics. forthcoming.The Concussion in Sport Group guidelines have successfully brought the attention of brain injuries to the global medical and sport research communities, and has significantly impacted brain injury-related practices and rules of international sport. Despite being the global repository of state-of-the-art science, diagnostic tools and guides to clinical practice, the ensuing consensus statements remain the object of ethical and sociocultural criticism. The purpose of this paper is to bring to bear…Read more
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3BehinderungIn Ralf Stoecker, Christian Neuhäuser & Marie-Luise Raters (eds.), Handbuch Angewandte Ethik, Verlag J.b. Metzler. pp. 391-396. 2011.Der Begriff der Behinderung ist komplex. Er kann in einer medizinischen Perspektive als Schädigung, also als eine dauerhafte Störung der Funktionsfähigkeit des Organismus, verstanden werden; oder er kann als Einschränkung der Handlungsfähigkeit einer Person interpretiert werden, wobei in der rechtlichen Verankerung meist speziell auf die Minderung der Erwerbsfähigkeit und die eingeschränkte Teilhabe am gesellschaftlichen Leben abgehoben wird.
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11TugendethikIn Ralf Stoecker, Christian Neuhäuser & Marie-Luise Raters (eds.), Handbuch Angewandte Ethik, Verlag J.b. Metzler. pp. 75-80. 2011.TugendethikenTugend, Tugendethik sind normative Theorien des richtigen und guten Handelns, die den zentralen Gesichtspunkt der ethischen Bewertung in der handelnden Person, genauer in ihrer charakterlichen und motivationalen Verfassung sehen. Eine Tugend ist eine charakterlich gefestigte Haltung von Menschen, die sie das Richtige und Gute aus eigener Überzeugung erkennen und erstreben lässt. Als Tugenden gelten dabei nicht nur die im engen Sinne moralischen Tugenden wie Gerechtigkeit oder Aufric…Read more
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26Philosophy and Psychiatry (edited book)De Gruyter. 2003.The interdisciplinary contributions of this edition promote the development of a new "philosophical psychopathology".
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10Determining Oneself and Determining One’s SelfIn James F. Childress & Michael Quante (eds.), Thick (Concepts of) Autonomy: Personal Autonomy in Ethics and Bioethics, Springer Verlag. pp. 33-52. 2021.In this essay, I exploit an ambiguity in the concept of self-determination. Self-de Green termination can mean to determine oneself in choices and actions or to determine one’s self. The second kind of self-determination leads to our capacity to imagine alternative selves of ourselves, which are to be actualized. This creates the basis for a normative conception of self-determination, i.e. a conception that incorporates the aspect of a right or good way to determine oneself. I defend a normative…Read more
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5Krankheit – ein toter Begriff?In Roland Kipke, Nele Röttger, Johanna Wagner & Almut Kristine V. Wedelstaedt (eds.), ZusammenDenken: Festschrift Für Ralf Stoecker, Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. pp. 355-364. 2021.Der Artikel befasst sich zunächst mit Ralf Stoeckers Analyse des Krankheitsbegriffs, speziell mit der Auffassung, dass es sich um einen Bündelbegriff handelt, der verschiedene Dimensionen des Phänomens Krankheit verbindet. Im Anschluss wird ein mögliches Szenario entworfen, in dem es gar keinen Krankheitsbegriff mehr gibt und damit die steuernde Funktion beim Zugang zu Gesundheitsressourcen wegfiele. Wäre es gut, wenn der gebrechliche Begriff der Krankheit, wie Stoecker ihn ebenfalls bezeichnet,…Read more
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41Capable deliberators: towards inclusion of minority minds in discourse practicesCritical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 27 (5): 835-858. 2024.It is widely assumed that severe mental disabilities prevent relevant deliberative capacities from developing or persisting. Accordingly, excluding many people with mental disabilities from discourse practices seems justified. Against this common assumption I wish to show that the general exclusion is not justified and amounts to a form of epistemic injustice, as theorised by Miranda Fricker. The received norm of capable deliberators is connected to a specific model of deliberation. I introduce …Read more
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27Wenn Philosophen aus der Hüfte schießenZeitschrift für Praktische Philosophie 2 (2): 377-384. 2015.In diesem Artikel wird argumentiert, dass die Philosophie nicht über passende Methoden verfügt, reale politische Probleme angemessen zu analysieren. So sind die tatsächlich vorzufindenden Empfehlungen zur Lösung solcher Fragen meist trivial oder unterkomplex. Es wird geraten, zuerst geeignete Instrumentarien der angewandten bzw. konkreten Ethik zu entwickeln, bevor sich PhilosophInnen zu solch komplexen Fragen wie die der Flüchtlingspolitik äußern.
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111Being Amoral: Psychopathy and Moral Incapacity (edited book)MIT Press. 2014.Psychopathy has been the subject of investigations in both philosophy and psychiatry and yet the conceptual issues remain largely unresolved. This volume approaches psychopathy by considering the question of what psychopaths lack. The contributors investigate specific moral dysfunctions or deficits, shedding light on the capacities people need to be moral by examining cases of real people who seem to lack those capacities. -/- The volume proceeds from the basic assumption that psychopathy is no…Read more
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148The significance of the concept of disease for justice in health careTheoretical Medicine and Bioethics 28 (2): 121-135. 2007.In this paper, I want to scrutinise the value of utilising the concept of disease for a theory of distributive justice in health care. Although many people believe that the presence of a disease-related condition is a prerequisite of a justified claim on health care resources, the impact of the philosophical debate on the concept of disease is still relatively minor. This is surprising, because how we conceive of disease determines the amount of justified claims on health care resources. Therefo…Read more
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37Verteilungsgerechtigkeit ohne VerteilungsgleichheitAnalyse & Kritik 21 (2): 171-191. 1999.Alternative approaches in the discussion of distributive justice differ in their answers to the question „equality of what“? In this essay I intend to ask instead,why equality?" The article rejects several arguments in favour of distributive equality, mainly on the grounds that they confuse two different kinds of justice, namely,formal’ justice (equal respect) and distributive justice. The ideal of distributive equality is based on comparisons but equal respect does not necessarily involve relat…Read more
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23Selbstbestimmung zwischen Perfektionismus und VoluntarismusDeutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 59 (6): 881-896. 2011.
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166Should we prevent non-therapeutic mutilation and extreme body modification?Bioethics 22 (1). 2007.ABSTRACT In this paper, I discuss several arguments against non‐therapeutic mutilation. Interventions into bodily integrity, which do not serve a therapeutic purpose and are not regarded as aesthetically acceptable by the majority, e.g. tongue splitting, branding and flesh stapling, are now practised, but, however, are still seen as a kind of ‘aberration’ that ought not to be allowed. I reject several arguments for a possible ban on these body modifications. I find the common pathologisation of …Read more
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38The Metric and the Threshold Problem for Theories of Health Justice: A Comment on VenkatapuramBioethics 30 (1): 19-24. 2015.Any theory of health justice requires an account of what areas of social life are important enough to be of public concern. What are the goods that ought to be provided as a matter of justice? This is what I will call the metric problem. The capabilities approach puts forward a particular solution to this problem. In this article I will discuss some issues of such an approach in relation to Sridhar Venkatapuram's well-known theory. Another problem I examine is how to determine a threshold of pro…Read more
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18Should We Prevent Non‐Therapeutic Mutilation and Extreme Body Modification?Bioethics 22 (1): 8-15. 2008.In this paper, I discuss several arguments against non‐therapeutic mutilation. Interventions into bodily integrity, which do not serve a therapeutic purpose and are not regarded as aesthetically acceptable by the majority, e.g. tongue splitting, branding and flesh stapling, are now practised, but, however, are still seen as a kind of ‘aberration’ that ought not to be allowed. I reject several arguments for a possible ban on these body modifications. I find the common pathologisation of body modi…Read more
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14Theories of Health Justice: Just Enough HealthRowman & Littlefield International. 2018.Ideal for students in the philosophy of medicine, healthcare and public health, this book offers an introduction to the philosophical debates around health justice. It presents clear conceptual definitions of health, disease and illness and the various theories of justice, developing a specific normative argument in the debate on health justice.
Liverpool, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Areas of Interest
Paternalism |
Empathy and Sympathy |
Altruism |
Philosophy of Psychiatry and Psychopathology |