A Conceptual Framework for Biointelligent Production—Calling for Systemic Life Cycle Thinking in Cellular Units

A sustainable design of production systems is essential for the future viability of the economy. In this context, biointelligent production systems (BIS) are currently considered one of the most innovative paths for a comprehensive reorientation of existing industrial patterns. BIS are intended to enable a highly localized on-demand production of personalized goods via stand-alone non-expert systems. Recent studies in this field have primarily adopted a technical perspective; this paper addresses the larger picture by discussing the essential issues of integrated production system design. Following a normative logic, we introduce the basic principle of systemic life cycle thinking in cellular units as the foundation of a management framework for BIS. Thereupon, we develop a coherent theoretical model of a future decentralized production system and derive perspectives for future research and development in key areas of management.

Hass und die negative Dialektik affektiver Herabsetzung

In the past few years, social and cultural theorists have pointed to the dynamic and performative character of forms of disparagement such as public shaming, humiliation, invective or hate speech. In this paper, I endorse a different route and focus on the distinctive affective and dialectical nature of what might be called the ‘politics of disparagement’. I will do so by elaborating on the affective intentionality of hatred, which can be seen as an affective attitude that paradigmatically encapsulates the dialectical antagonism at play in the politics of disparagement. I argue that the affective intentionality of hatred is distinctive in three interrelated ways: First, it has an overgeneralising, indeterminate affective focus, which typically leads to a certain collectivisation of its target. Secondly, short of a determinate affective focus, haters derive the indeed extreme affective powers of the attitude not in reaction to any specific features or actions of the targets or from some phenomenological properties of the attitude but, rather, from the sheer commitment to the attitude itself. Finally, in sharing this commitment to hate with others, hatred involves a certain negative dialectics and becomes entrenched as a shared habitus. Ultimately, I suggest that we can only counteract the politics of disparagement if we understand how a shared commitment to disparagement and hatred establishes its own normative logic, which not only concerns their victims but also, dialectically, sanctions their enactors.

The Principle of Self-Determination of Peoples High and Low

The subject matter of this article is the principle of Self-Determination of Peo­ples of the contemporary international law. The principle is scrutinized both his­torically through its inner historical transformation and logically, through the analysis of its inner normative logic. The problem related to this principle is that it belongs simultaneously to three realms, those of politics, law and morals, containing different meanings. These meanings often do contradict each other and it happens differently on different stages of the historical transformation. The three major stages of the development of the principle (from the First World War up to the end of the Second; from the end of the Second World war up to the demise of the Soviet Union; and from the demise of the Soviet Union up to now) were continuously the stages of predominantly political, legal and moral. Each of the stages was reflecting the characteristic illusion of its time and was founded on the unique combination of the dominant meanings of the principle, which was enabling the principle to play its practical role. At the same time there are clear indications that the principle is incapable to play its cardinal proper role of the universal moral principle when it comes to it. This becomes crystal clear at the third stage of the development and which is trigger­ing unprecedented political violence of the contemporary movements of self-determination and secession

Sobre a relação entre os níveis de lógica doutrinária nos Prolegômenos à lógica pura de E. Husserl

Focusing on the introductory volume of Logical Investigations, by E. Husserl (Prolegomena to Pure Logic), the present paper aims to clarify the interactions between his conceptions of Logic as a discipline. This task was performed, mainly, by exposing their respective positions before the layers of Science, also extracted from the work. In this sense, it has been found that each of these disciplines relates to a specific part of Science. Thus (simply) Normative Logic has its sentences directed to Knowledge, understood in a subjective and ideal way. Pratical Logic turns to research methods, thus regulating human scientific activities. However, what is most significant for all these disciplines is that they do so in a general way, comprehending globally their corresponding areas of science. Hereupon, it is found, starting from the notion that knowledge is subjectivation of objectivity, that these disciplines are subordinated to the Pure Logic, which, in turn, have formal laws directed, in the most general way, towards all the objectivity of science. In this sense, the main contribution brought by the research is the idea of a hierarchical flow throughout each doctrine, which emanates from Pure Logic until it reaches, by way of Normative Logic, Technological Logic.

CHURCH-STATE SYMPHONIA: ITS HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT AND ITS APPLICATIONS BY THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH

This article analyzes the origins of the concept of symphonia, its historical development, and its utilization by the Russian Orthodox Church as a normative ideal for church-state relations. In various historical contexts, this concept has referred to different normative requirements; it relied on different paradigms in Byzantium and in medieval Russia and it acquired new meanings in Imperial Russia. The reinterpretations of this concept by the Russian Orthodox Church in order to legitimize its position in the political life of contemporary Russia take this concept far from its original meaning. Using methods from the history of concepts of, among others, Reinhart Koselleck and Quentin Skinner, the author considers how the semantic transformations of symphonia in modern contexts by the Russian Orthodox Church lead to a hollowing of this concept. This conception is hardly reconcilable with the normative logic of the actual Russian political and legal systems.

An Exploration of Queer Diasporic Subjectivities in Shani Mootoo’s 'Out on Main Street'

In view of the acute lack of analyses of Indian-Trinidadian queer diasporic subjectivities, this article will focus on Shani Mootoo’s “Out on Main Street” by using a queer diasporic theoretical framework, one which hinges on unveiling the violent practices to which sexually and racially marginalized communities are exposed and on exploring the ways by which queer diasporic subjects subvert dominant assumptions. In order to carry out the analysis, I will, first, offer an overview of the uses and implications for invoking the concept of a queer diaspora to study Mootoo’s story; second, I will scrutinize the manner in which the queer diasporic narrator is affected by exclusivist definitions of gender and national identities, and, third, I will examine the specific tactics through which she unsettles the normative logic. Ultimately, the study of Mootoo’s story under a queer diasporic approach will offer a further insight into the diaspora experience, one which considers both sexuality and translocation as crucial factors shaping the way the narrator inhabits the city.

The Logic of Identity and the Normative Logic

Attention is focused on the instrumental uses of identity, that is, how identity affects perceptions of organization design and how it can be instrumental in changing organization designs. The concept of identity orientation is highlighted, given the crucial role it plays in the linking between the identity logic and the normative logic. In many ways, identity is also normative because, once established, it sets the standards of behaviour. Given the intimate relationship between the two logics, they are dealt with in the same chapter. The normative logic is inspired by the principle of ethics from design theory, but for purposes of organization design it finds translation in stakeholder theory, which holds that (1) enterprises have a moral duty to ensure the welfare of all their stakeholders, not only that of stockholders; (2) by acting in a socially responsible manner toward all their stakeholders, firms can enhance their performance and gain business advantage

Designing Organization Design

As a topic, organization design is poorly understood. While it is featured in most management textbooks as a chapter dedicated to organizational structures, it is unclear whether organization design is a one-off event or an ongoing process. Thus, it has traditionally been understood to be the same as an organizational configuration, with neat lines of communication and distribution of responsibilities, following pre-set typologies. However, what can be said to constitute organizational structure in this first half of the 21st century? The extraordinary growth of digital communications, the decreasing relevance of hierarchical bureaucracies, and the general demise of command-and-control have all but decimated the traditional notion of organizational structure. In this book it is argued that organization design needs a theoretical revamping. Using a mix of design and social sciences theories and concepts, the new approach is divided into three parts: design logics, design processes, and design leadership. A generic definition of organization design logics is offered, as a set of beliefs shared by managers and entrepreneurs in given sectors of the economy about the way organizations should be designed. Five logics and three types of designing processes are put forward. Logics: (1) the identity logic, (2) the normative logic, (3) the service logic, (4) the logic of effectual reasoning, (5) the logic of interactive structure. Processes: (1) intended design, (2) emergent design, (3) perceived design. For the leadership part, a model of leaderful organization design(ing) is proposed, with the following distinguishing features: (a) practice-based, (b) guided by values of democratic participation, (c) places meaning-making and meaning-taking at the centre of organizational life, (d) driven by design logics, which can be adopted and adapted to suit different internal and external environments.

Emerging viral threats and the simultaneity of the non-simultaneous: zooming out in times of Corona

This paper addresses global bioethical challenges entailed in emerging viral diseases, focussing on their socio-cultural dimension and seeing them as symptomatic of the current era of globalisation. Emerging viral threats exemplify the extent to which humans evolved into a global species, with a pervasive and irreversible impact on the planetary ecosystem. To effectively address these disruptive threats, an attitude of preparedness seems called for, not only on the viroscientific, but also on bioethical, regulatory and governance levels. This paper analyses the global bioethical challenges of emerging viral threats from a dialectical materialist (Marxist) perspective, focussing on three collisions: (1) the collision of expanding networks of globalisation with local husbandry practices; (2) the collision of global networks of mobility with disrupted ecosystems; and (3) the collision of viroscience as a globalised research field with existing regulatory frameworks. These collisions emerge in a force field defined by the simultaneity of the non-simultaneous. Evidence-based health policies invoke discontent as they reflect the normative logic of a globalised knowledge regime. The development of a global bioethics or macro-ethics requires us to envision these collisions not primarily as issues of benefits and risks, but first and foremost as normative tensions closely entangled with broader socio-economic and socio-cultural developments.

The Normative Order of the Internet

Chapter 6 presents in detail the normative order of the internet based on the notion of a necessary identification of, and turn toward, a nomos of the internet, which is embedded in, and configures, the normative order of the internet. The study shows that this order has many facets, contains national, international, public, and private norms, but has importantly developed its own normative logic, instruments and rules on the relation of actors and its own conception of the legitimacy of norms. The normative order provides a normative infrastructure in which the internet’s nomos, including its means of normative production and justification, are anchored. The study will determine norms belonging to the normative order of the internet to be those that have a material (non-trivial) and a normative (not merely factual) connection to the internet as a network of networks. These norms will be shown to be formally and materially legitimated. Formal legitimation will be shown to be achievable through symbolic validation through norm emergence in processes involving multiple actors. Material legitimation is possible through norms being determinate enough for their purpose (thus allowing for non-binding instruments), coherent with the core principles of the normative order of the internet, consonant with the order’s values as expressed in its principles, and adhering systematically to the normative order as a whole.