Gadamer’s hermeneutics has met with criticism in the more than forty years since the original German publication of Wahrheit und Methode in 1960. A figure who has recently criticized Gadamer’s hermeneutics from the perspective of traditional hermeneutics is Pol Vandevelde. He published a book entitled: "The Task of the Interpreter: Text, Meaning, and Negotiation”. The first two chapters of this book, especially the second chapter, with the title “Interpretation as Event: A Critique of Gadamer’s Critical Pluralism,” is devoted to attacking some aspects of Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics. He has called his critiques as 'Ambiguities'. In fact, he focuses on three ambiguities: the fusion of horizons, the active role of the interpreter, and the status of language. Vandevelde’s critiques, similar to the critical views of other critics, are directed to four subjects: the problem of author's intention, the problem of objectivity, the problem of validity of interpretation, and finally the problem of relativism. Although I have examined all his three ambiguities, but because of the limitations that you have mentionedin the ‘Submission Guidelines’, I have sent you only a part of my paper. It seems to me that Vandevelde’s critiques shows that he has not adequate consideration to the foundations of Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics.

This paper intends to explore an aspect of Blumenberg’s metaphorology as memory of mankind and the ethical commitment derived from it. It is seen as the culmination of the fight that the human being maintains against the senselessness of reality. It manifests itself and it is perceived by a human being as theimmensurability of world time and life time (i.e. that the human being is born and dies), that impedes the human being from having all of the world i.e. the satisfaction of its infinite desires. In the fight against finity technology and money play a vital role. They have in common the power to enable an expansion of human capacities over the boundaries of factual existence: through technology and money the human being can do more or, do the same in less time. That is: tobring closer life time and world time. But in this process the instrumental character of technology and money causes homogenisation in the societies where they thrive. That’s one of the characteristics of globalization. This homogenisation is to be understood as the forgetting of other essential possibilities of the human creation of meaning. Thus, what technological and monetary processes construct on one side, come to be destroyed on the other side. Blumenberg’s metaphorology is the adequate response: it is understood both as the self-consciousness of the process of reason in its making sense of the universe, and as an “ideal store” of everything the human being has come to make in this process.

Neoclassical economic theory has often failed to reflect adequately the particular features of labour. The assumption that there are no political relationships between capital and labour has led to the development of incomplete—and sometimes false—economic models. An institutional approach, one which takes intoaccount the historical social dynamics underlying the relationship between capital and labour, shows more clearly how the asymmetry of power in the labour contract affects freedom in a wider—and political—sense. Through consideration of the different forms of household government in Locke and Aristotle we can reach a better understanding of how the ancient contract of servitude, which Roman law defined as locatio conductio operarum, became today’s ‘labour contract’. This paper aims to show that the supposed contractual freedom is structurally limited by social asymmetries, in other words, by the fact that one of the parties to the contract is not completely autonomous as he/she is not a property owner. Good economic theory should seek to incorporate not only the economic dimension of social asymmetries but also their unyielding political dimension.

The article uncovers an inherent link between philosophy and political economy. Application of the dialectical analytical framework to economics opens up distinctly innovative opportunities in social policy and theoretical advancements. Evolutionary understanding of a phenomenon in its totality rather than its break up into seemingly unrelated bits is crucial. Such analysis is capable of offering an all encompassing scientific explanation of the social and economic transformations taking place in modern times. To ensure sustained and socially fair growth, a proactive fiscal involvement is called upon in the areas of a)infrastructure, b) human capital [i.e. education and healthcare] and c) labor migration. Innovative approaches to fiscal policy focus on Infrastructure Development Fund, Strategic Learning Systems, Migration Development Bank, involvement of the Diaspora mechanism and Sovereign Diaspora Bond program [managed viaState–Diaspora Supervisory Boards] to support developmental initiatives. A policy prescription cannot be a “one-fits-all measure.” Considerations of individuality of country specific development patterns as well as the need for understanding history and evolution of the economy, i.e. society, evolve in the dialectical analysis ofphilosophic and economic identity of the totality of social change. This prompts innovative fiscal policy in adequate balance with monetary policy and other development tools.

I argue that George Ainslie’s model of Hyperbolic Discounting fails to yield strict akratic action. But it does yield a deflated view. Furthermore, by understanding the nature of a hyperbolically discounting self, we can also offer a deflated view of self-deception, according to which self-deception is motivated error by hyperbolic discounters who desire to view themselves as rational.

It is a commonplace that, in everyday life, we compare different people’s preferences with respect to content and strength. We typically make such comparisons with relatively little difficulty. Furthermore, we often do not find inter-personal comparisons of preferences more difficult than intra-personal comparisons, that is,comparisons involving our own preferences. This contrasts with the difficulties that comparing preferences across individuals pose at the theoretical level. Since preferences are typically represented numerically through a utility function, the problem is known as the problem of interpersonal utility comparisons (IUCs for short). In this paper, I examine the most common solution to the problem of IUCs. According to it, we can assume that preferences are interpersonally comparable on pragmatic grounds (i.e. explanatory power, parsimony and simplicity) I argue that, contrary to our intuitions, the assumption of interpersonal comparability is not pragmatically advantageous. I conclude that this strategy to solve the problem of IUCs fails.

Reiterative coordination games in large groups demonstrate that social norms, once attained, create stable equilibria. This shows that thin social capital is stable, and in some cases preferable to thick SC since it lowers transacting costs. This finding, supported indirectly by R. Putnam’s own early research, runs counter to his claim that the loss of thick social capital is detrimental to the modern society and to Coleman’s argument that closure is required for maintaining social capital.

Starting from the counter-position of the traditional model of labour and the traditional aim and ideal of a good life, the paper emphasises that philosophy had to solve the problem of the possibility to generalise the model of a creative and pleasant life. Therefore the goal of the paper is two-fold. The one is to question thenecessity of labour from the standpoint of the rebel thinking transfigured in the literature of laziness as alternative to the ancient tradition of hard labouring. The other is to mention some present philosophical theories about the cognitive labour. By asserting the fundamental changes in the regime of work opened up by the new industrial revolution begun more than thirty years ago, a mere conclusion would be that the present philosophy still has a big duty toward this crucial and obviously open problem.

The Paper is dedicated to philosophical fundamentals of the Marx’s theory of product value. The author proves that in the Marx’s theory the value of the product of labour and, correspondently, of the commodity is defined inaccurately. He thinks that the concept of labour, presented in the economic theory of K. Marx, undeservedly ignores the role of intellectual activity of an individual in production of material goods. Marx considered mental activity as integral part of physical labour. This Marx’s viewpoint takes in account only the controlling mental activity of an individual in the process of labour. The author thinks that such form of labour existed only in conditions of primitive manufacture, when a worker himself invented the product of labour and then created it with the help of materialactivity. In the period of industrial production of material goods, starting from the late 18th century, the intellectual labour separated from the physical labour and by its status became a sufficient independent stage of public production process. In this connection it is necessary to reconsider a number of such important concepts of philosophical fundamentals of economics as labour, value and wealth.

“Radical The paper provides a survey of arguments for claims that rational agents should have transitive preferences and argues that they are not valid. The presentation is based on a chapter for the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Rational and Social Choice.

The subject of my report is Movement of Narcogenes: From the Past Through the Present Time and to the Future.

Economics presents the paradox of the entropy of the law of diminishing returns and infinity of the substitution effect. Resolution assumes the substitution effect is greater than diminishing returns. Technology presupposing entropy, introduced is a new paradox of entropic technology generating infinite growth. Resolution assumes serial substitution of technologies, generating an infinite continuum. Physics and economics contest mechanic entropy and organic growth conceptions. A mechanic conception resolves set disjunctives exclusively, every set disjoined from a contiguous set, constituting entropy. An organic conception resolves set disjunctives inclusively, every set conjoined with a contiguous set, constituting growth. Causally each instance of something decreases the preexistent set of all possible instances by one, dying. Functionally each instance of something increases the postexistent set of all possible instances by one, living. Economists have the advantage here. Endlessly divisible, substance is something constituted of nothing, ungoverned by the law of conservation of energy. Physicists implicitly concede this assuming substance emerges from a Big Bang. Alas lunch is not free. Product of an economic growth equation being endless and non-repetitive, calculation is irrational, rendering growth economics irrelevant. Calculation requires marginal analysis, sequences initiating anywhere within a set governed by conservation of energy and entropy converging in parallel upon a common limit, “the unseen hand.” Energy conserved, however, economic growth is bounded.

A mitigation bank is a large wetland or wetland complex that is developed for the sake of selling credits to private developers or government agencies to compensate for the destruction of natural wetlands. The United States Army Corps of Engineers often sets as a condition for issuing a Section 404 permit the purchase of a certain number of bank credits. Mitigation banking is now emphasized within Corps’ policy, and it has become big business within the United States. Arguments for mitigation banking stress the efficiency in permitting and monitoring that banking makes possible. Proponents of banking claim that banking is ecologically beneficial to wetland plants and animals, but recent studies have shown that mitigation banking threatens biodiversity. The problem, generally, is consolidation. Underlying mitigation banking, and embedded within Corps policy, is the assumption that preservation of wetland functions must accommodate to a large extent desired levels of economic development and efficiency in the development process.

This paper offers some ideas and methods of consensus building towards integration of values in flood control, environment, and landscape. These three factors sometimes oppose to each other in the process of construction of public infrastructure such as roadbuilding and river improvement. It is crucial to avoid or resolute conflicts between the government and the local people through project management with the consensus building process. In public works in Japan, flood control has been given priority over the environmental preservation and the landscape conservation due to the perception that it is through flood control that the life and property of individuals are adequately protected. As a consequence, the landscape and the environment have been paid only lip‐service. In the case of the Ohashi River Project in Izumo region presented in this paper, however, the river repair process might entail a severe blow to the tourism industry and have a dramatic impact on the fishery resources of the region, which would be considered a major loss in terms of the urban development of the city. One of our concerns is thus to avoid any losses, through proper consideration of the relationship between the three crucial factors. In this paper, the author reports some ideas and methods that appear in “Basic Policy for the Development of the Area around Ohashi River” composed by the Matsue Review Committee on the Development of the Area around the Ohashi River, in which the author is involved as a committee member. The most important task of the Committee wasto search for the ideas and methods to harmonize the values of flood control, environment, and landscape.

The notion of reparation in ethical, political and legal discourse has become popular in recent years. Reparation refers to a category of actions for which there are morally compelling reasons to perform due to wrongful action in the past. ‘Reparation’ is often, but not merely, used in the context of collective responsibility. The debate around the concept has mainly focussed on humans, but the wrongs done to humans can be indirect, such as contaminating the soil or polluting the air, in cases of which the quality of human life has been significantly deteriorated. In the paper, it will be examined whether the concept of reparation is applicable to characterise our responsibilities to the rest of nature? And can ecological restoration be understood as an exemplification of reparation? In restoration,ecological system or natural landscape returned to some historically existed condition. In the context of reparations, the scope of concern would be limited to those changes that involve human presence or activity. Reparation is to be understood as corrective action when one has done something wrong. Ecological restoration aims to restore a situation that has prevailed at some point earlier. To say that ecological restoration is also moral reparation, we must assumethat nature or non-human entities and processes be wronged in the morally relevant sense. There are, of course, reasons for being sceptical over this assumption and its practical implications.

Environment is essentially in the category of culture and environmental research should be based on human value and culture. The study of the relationship between humans and their natural environment should also refer to human relations. Since the operational logic of social capital is the root of ecological crisis, the ultimate solution to this problem lies in human’s correct thinking, institutional, political and behavioral patterns in dealing with nature. Re-establishing human ecology therefore provides a cultural basis for the harmony between human and nature and realistic basis for the psycho-physical harmony and spiritualization of humans.

Since time immemorial Indian culture has been upholding a symbiotic relationship between man and environment. It has led to the all round evolution of Indian culture as an integral whole. This assimilation has been possible due to the spiritual vision of Indian seers. Every Culture is based upon certain values. In India values are usually discussed in the context of the principal ends of human life (chatuspurusartha): dharma (moral value), artha (political and economic values), kama (sensual value) and moksha (spiritual value). Indian cultural tradition shaped human behaviour in accordance with these values, which impinged ecological issues as well. Again, Indian classification of value is based on two percepts. These are (1) the essential infinitude and divinity of all souls and (2) the essential oneness and solidarity of universe and all life. Supreme being resides in all; hence no area of life is alien to spiritual influence. It emphasizes the presence of an infinite knowledge, power, purity and bliss behind the body-mind complex of human beings, which is called Atman. Upanisads express this truth as Aham Brahmasmi (I am Brahman) or Ayam Atma Brahma (the individual soul is Brahman) or Tat Twam Asi (thou art that). Acceptance of the presence of God in everything led Indian culture to maintain and protect the natural harmonious relationship between human beings and nature. Moreover, Indians discovered the essential unity of all existence. The universe is holistic. Here at the deeper level of all pervading consciousness everything in the world is interconnected. Oneness of the entire reality is the basic presupposition and the guiding principle of the spiritualistic approach of Indian culture. The paper is an attempt to show that the holistic view of Indian culture is mirrored in the philosophy of ecology.

The concept of tolerance is one of the basic ethical categories of Buddhism. Showing conscious tolerance, you control a situation and do not allow feelings, such as anger or arrogance to take top above reason. Besides, the tolerance to other people and different situation shows your wide scope and common emancipation. The tolerance is one of qualities inherent to bodhisattvas - sacred Buddhists. These qualities are called paramita, and paramita of tolerance - kshanti-paramita. Kshanti-paramita is triple: tolerance to other alive beings, tolerance to vital circumstances and tolerance coming with wisdom and penetration into essence of things and the phenomena. The man practicing tolerance, sympathizes with living creatures, understands their problems, mental condition and level of consciousness development. He can understand the true reasons of their behaviour. Buddhist tolerance is based on respect of other alive essences, by their potentially and permanently actualized trueness. Concept of tolerance propagates equality and peaceful coexistence of various essences. The tolerance in relation to vital circumstances helps the man to keep positive mood without dependence from modus of possession and external conditions. In this sense thespiritual sermons are very important drawing attention of a man to values of the internal world, his unity with the universe.

The aim of this paper is to examine the role of imagination in environmental ethics and introduce an imaginative dimension as an essential part of environmental ethics. Imagination constitutes a basic condition for ethical thinking and action. Matters of environmental ethics have revealed the indispensable role of imagination in ethics. I’ll advance an imagination-based environmental ethics by developing Hans Jonas’ ethical thought. From his viewpoint, various effects of our action on nature and future generations, generally out of our sight, have become an ethical concern. This necessitates the exercise of imagination because we must “imagine” those distant effects to act in an environmentally responsible way. Jonas’ “heuristics of fear” is an imaginative approach necessary for responsible action. Further, I reinterpret the role of imagination as motivating our “will to know.” In conclusion, I suggest the importance of environmental education as cultivating ecological imagination from the standpoint of environmental ethics.

The concept of tolerance is one of the basic ethical categories of Buddhism. Showing conscious tolerance, you control a situation and do not allow feelings, such as anger or arrogance to take top above reason. Besides, the tolerance to other people and different situation shows your wide scope and common emancipation. The tolerance is one of qualities inherent to bodhisattvas - sacred Buddhists. These qualities are called paramita, and paramita of tolerance - kshanti-paramita. Kshanti-paramita is triple: tolerance to other alive beings, tolerance to vital circumstances and tolerance coming with wisdom and penetration into essence of things and the phenomena. The man practicing tolerance, sympathizes with living creatures, understands their problems, mental condition and level of consciousness development. He can understand the true reasons of their behaviour. Buddhist tolerance is based on respect of other alive essences, by their potentially and permanently actualized trueness. Concept of tolerance propagates equality and peaceful coexistence of various essences. The tolerance in relation to vital circumstances helps the man to keep positive mood without dependence from modus of possession and external conditions. In this sense thespiritual sermons are very important drawing attention of a man to values of the internal world, his unity with the universe.