The paper discusses Rawls’ and Habermas’ theories of deliberative democracy, focusing on the question of religious reasons in political discourse. Whereas Rawls as well as Habermas defend a fully inclusivist position on the use of religious reasons in the ‘background culture’ (Rawls) or ‘informal public sphere’ (Habermas), we defend a moderately inclusivist position. Moderate inclusivism welcomes ...

Elsewhere we have responded to the so-called demandingness objection to consequentialism – that consequentialism is excessively demanding and is therefore unacceptable as a moral theory – by introducing the theoretical position we call institutional consequentialism. This is a consequentialist view that, however, requires institutional systems, and not individuals, to follow the consequentialist ...

Logic is widely held to be a normative discipline. Various claims have been offered in support of this view, but they all revolve around the idea that logic is concerned with how one ought to reason. I argue that most of these claims—while perhaps correct—only entail that logic is normative in a way that many, if not all, intellectual disciplines are normative. I also identify some claims whose ...

Das Prinzip des Willens zur Macht spielt von Beginn an, das heißt spätestens seit dem kurzen Stück über Homer’s Wettkampf, bis in Nietzsches letzte philosophische Texte hinein eine hervorgehobene Rolle. Doch es fällt auf, dass Nietzsche am Ende neben und gegenläufig zu diesem Prinzip ein Verständnis und eine Haltung dem Leben gegenüber zu konturieren sucht, die über den Willen zur Macht hinausweisen. ...

Wird gefragt, was für die Gestaltung des menschlichen Lebens wesentlich ist, so kommt dem Glück und dem Streben nach Glück in der Einschätzung Kants nicht der höchste Wert zu. Anders als es ein bis heute wirkmächtiges Vorurteil nahelegt, unterschätzt Kant aber auf der anderen Seite das Streben des Menschen nach Glück keineswegs. Eine Auseinandersetzung mit Kants Begriff des Glücks kann sich ...

The problem of relativism and realism may appear in hermeneutic and mundane phenomenological projects. In this paper theories of Kuhn, Wittgenstein, Winch, and Bloor are discussed. Kuhn’s theory may be interpreted in at least two ways, one generating the problem of relativism and realism, the second avoiding the problem. Wittgenstein’s treatment of reciprocal understanding across cultural borders ...

This article discusses the case of refugees who are LGBT, and the possible grounds for using LGBT status as a basis for prioritizing LGBT persons in refugee admissions. I argue that those states most willing and able to protect LGBT persons against a variety of (also) non-asylum-grounding injustices have strong moral reasons to admit and prioritize refugees with LGBT status over non-LGBT refugees ...

This chapter discusses some of the challenges and potential solutions for better treatment and inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons (lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer students and staff) in higher education. The chapter provides a theoretical background on the understanding of the LGBTQ+ categories, as well as the ethical questions relating to the treatment of LGBTQ+ persons in contemporary societies. Specific ...

According to linguistic conventionalism, necessities are to be explained in terms of the conventionally adopted rules that govern the use of linguistic expressions. A number of influential arguments against this view concerns the ‘Truth-Contrast Thesis’. This is the claim that necessary truths are fundamentally different from contingent ones since they are not made true by ‘the (worldly) facts’. ...