How is political corruption wrong?

This chapter offers a normative account of the threat political corruption poses to institutional well-functioning. When political corruption occurs against the background of legitimate or nearly just institutions, it is inherently wrong because it constitutes a wrongful form of interaction between officeholders. The idea of interactive injustice is used to qualify this kind of relational wrong. The way officeholders treat each other in their institutional interactions should be governed by a regulative principle of office accountability. When officeholders fail office accountability by acting in a corrupt way or by participating in corrupt institutional practices, they alter ipso facto the normative order of just interactions constitutive of their institution. This alteration indicates how political corruption is inherently unjust as a violation of the duty of office accountability, even in the absence of identifiable consequences. This normative view of political corruption is distinguished from other views based on impartiality or political equality.

FALSIFIABILITY AS A REGULATIVE PRINCIPLE : THE LIMITS OF APPLICABILITY

The article discusses the limits of applicability of the idea of falsifiability proposed by K. Popper for the evaluation of scientific theories. The article reviews the original formulations of the principle of falsifiability presented in the works of Popper. Further, the main attention is paid to the problem of the holistic nature of experimental testing of scientific theories posed by P. Duhem. It is claimed that the idea of falsifiability can be considered as a methodological regulative principle. However, this principle seems to be less obligatory than the principle of non-contradiction, the excessive disregard of which will mean the collapse of any research.

Reformed Theology in the Context of the Reformation(s)

Reformed theology developed in the Reformation as both a positive appropriation of, and reaction to, Lutheranism. In its soteriology it was close to that of Martin Luther, but in its understanding of the Lord’s Supper it rejected the objective presence of Christ in the elements. As the sixteenth century wore on, Reformed theologians addressed issues of worship, where the development of the Regulative Principle was central. Also, Reformed theologians of the Bucer–Calvin trajectory went further than the Lutherans in pressing for a clearer demarcation between church and state on ecclesiastical matters, even though they were not able to achieve their ideal. As the century drew to a close, the rise of movements within the Reformed camp, particularly that of the Arminians, set the scene for increasingly rarefied and divisive debates over the basic elements of the Reformed understanding of grace.

“The Revised Method of Physico-Theology”

For Immanuel Kant, teleology was a philosophical method as well as a central topic for philosophy. As a philosophical method, teleology meant that no way of thinking that is natural for us can be in vain, as long as we understand it properly: this was the basis for Kant’s critique of traditional theoretical metaphysics but reconstruction of the central ideas of metaphysics on practical grounds. As a philosophical topic, Kant thought about teleology from his early book The Only Possible Basis for a Demonstration of the Existence of God (1763) until his late Critique of the Power of Judgment (1790), eventually arriving at the position that a teleological outlook is a subjectively necessary regulative principle for our scientific inquiry into organic nature but also an indispensable part of our self-understanding as moral agents in the natural world.

Às Margens do Leviatã

O presente artigo apresenta o modo como o método mecanicista da filosofia de Hobbes considera a vida dos homens e do Estado civil em termos de uma continuidade do movimento da matéria. A partir de uma consideração do mecanicismo moderno aplicado às paixões humanas, o presente artigo busca também mostrar como o medo da morte parece ser o princípio regulador das ações dos homens hobbesianos tanto fora quanto dentro do Estado civil. Por fim, o artigo busca evidenciar como a constituição e a conservação da monstruosa máquina do Estado civil hobbesiano implicam sempre em uma soberania absoluta e indivisível. Abstract: This article presents the way in which the mechanistic method of Hobbes' philosophy considers the life of men and the civil state in terms of a continuity in the movement of matter. From a consideration of the modern mechanism applied to human passions, this article also seeks to show how the fear of death is the regulative principle of the actions of Hobbesian men both outside and within the civil State. Finally, this article seeks to clarify how the constitution and conservation of the monstrous Hobbesian civil state machine always implies absolute and indivisible sovereignty.

The legacy of singing Scripture only in the Reformed Churches in South Africa: The regulating role of the Word from Heidelberg to Dordrecht

This article presents a historical–theological investigation into, and retrieval of, the principle underlying Article 69 of the 1618–1619 church order of the Synod of Dordrecht for the reformation of worship in the Reformed Churches in South Africa (RCSA). Article 69 essentially mandates the singing of Scripture only in corporate worship. The Dordrecht church order was adopted by the RCSA (originally the Vrye Gereformeerde Kerk) at her founding in 1859, a founding in part as a reaction to the singing of free hymns in the mother Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk. In her formation, the RCSA re-established vital continuity with a catholic and Reformed tradition of singing Scripture only in public worship. And yet, in 2012, the General Synod of the RCSA decided to revise Article 69 to allow for the singing of free hymns. In the name of Semper Reformanda, this article seeks to challenge the historical–theological validity of this decision by recovering a central principle overlooked at the aforementioned Synod, yet present in the continental Reformed tradition. That principle is the Scriptural or regulative principle of worship (S/RPW). Simply stated, it is doing in public worship only what God commands. The presence of the S/RPW in the founding standards of the RCSA is of significance for appreciating her historic 150-year legacy of singing Scripture only and for her ongoing responsible critique of introducing free hymns.

Behind Harmony and Justice

The proposition of “harmony higher than justice” was initiated by Li Zehou in 2007. It implies a hierarchical consideration rather than value assessment, thus schemed to reveal at least five aspects: (1) Harmony on this account is to be preconditioned by justice. (2) Harmony largely stems from human emotion instead of human rationality. (3) There are three forms of harmony in the societal, personal and eco-environmental domains. (4) What makes the three forms of harmony possible involves some key notions that vouchsafe a theoretical ground and a primary part of the “Chinese religious morality”. (5) The morality of this kind procures a regulative principle to facilitate an appropriate constitution of “modern social ethics” with regard to harmony as the ultimate destination of the future society and world alike. Accordingly, the proposition can be employed to further develop “the Chinese application” and impact “the Western substance”.

Tras la comunidad. De la Gemeinschaft sociológica a la “comunidad ideal de comunicación” en la ética de Apel

Se pretende mostrar la coincidencia entre el papel que desempeña la idealizada Gemeinschaft en algunos sociólogos clásicos (como instancia crítica de los males de las sociedades modernas) con la función teórica del a priori de la “comunidad ideal de comunicación” en la ética de Apel (en tanto que principio regulativo de los reales procesos dialógicos). Se compara la futurible “comunidad ideal” con la pasada “vida comunitaria” de los consensos morales. Hoy nos encontramos después de la sociológica Gemeinschaft (primer sentido de la preposición “tras”) pero hemos de caminar hacia la comunidad ideal de comunicación (segundo sentido de “tras”). ABSTRACT: The present contribution aims to illustrate the close relation between the role played by the idealized Gemeinschaft in some classical sociologists (as a critical element of modern societies’ ills) and the theoretical function of the “ideal communication community” as an a priori in Apel’s ethics (as a regulative principle of actual dialogic processes). With that aim, I will compare the possible future “ideal community” to the past “community life” of moral consensus. Now we live after the sociological Gemeinschaft (first sense of the preposition “after”) but we must go after the ideal communication community (second sense of “after”).

Kant on the Continuity of Alterations

The metaphysical “Law of Continuity of Alterations” (“LCA”) says that whenever an object alters from one state to another, it passes through a continuum of intermediate states. Kant treated LCA as a transcendental law of understanding. The primary purpose of the paper is to reconstruct and evaluate Kant’s three arguments for LCA. All three are found to be inadequate. However, a secondary goal of the paper is to show that LCA would have more naturally been construed as a regulative principle of reason (rather than a law of understanding). I conclude with some remarks about how this could work.