Papers by Vojko Strahovnik
Religions
Religious beliefs are intertwined with religion or religious tradition. This article argues for a... more Religious beliefs are intertwined with religion or religious tradition. This article argues for a holistic understanding of religious beliefs and suggests that the formation and maintenance of religious beliefs are holistically sensitive to the background information, which includes the culture’s meaning–value system. Beliefs embed appreciation of this background without the believer being explicitly conscious of how it has shaped them. This presents a problem for interreligious dialogue. In an interreligious dialogue, actors rarely recognise that one or more actors have no direct and unmediated access to this background. Any model of intercultural theology must thus understand religious belief holistically if it purports to facilitate interreligious dialogue. Holism is a vital epistemic and pragmatic facet of intercultural theology. Intercultural theology can use several strategies that could circumvent this problem—for example, analogies, metaphors, narratives, and even jokes. The...
I discuss varieties of ethical generalities that appear in the area between strict moral generali... more I discuss varieties of ethical generalities that appear in the area between strict moral generalism and radical particularism. Arguments in support for particularism are presented, especially in relation to the question what kinds of generalities moral particularism may allow for. I discuss R. Audi’s model of moderate particularism that preserves prima facie duties, all in putting them into a complex normative and deliberative structure that is supposed to be «holism friendly». Next, M. Little and M. Lance version of particularism building upon defeasible principles is presented. J. Dancy’s particularism and his idea of a default reason are then discussed. I propose that interpreting prima facie duties in terms of tendencies may help to understand the status and workings of ethical generalities consistent with particularism
The paper deals with selected dimensions of the global justice, especially those that are connect... more The paper deals with selected dimensions of the global justice, especially those that are connected with the concept of hospitality. It introduces and elaborates the concept of agents of justice as developed by Onora O’Neill and situates its importance in the global justice perspective. The aim is to defend the right to hospitality, develop the notion of an agent of hospitality and in relation to it develop a framework of correlated duties and responsibilities that these have within the cosmopolitan justice perspective.
Die Publikation ist an Lehrkräfte, Kindergartenpädagogen/innen, Erzieher/innen und alle weiteren ... more Die Publikation ist an Lehrkräfte, Kindergartenpädagogen/innen, Erzieher/innen und alle weiteren interessierten Leser/innen gerichtet und stellt einen umfassenden Leitfaden für Ethische Bildung und Werteerziehung (EBW) an europäischen Schulen und Kindergärten dar. Das Handbuch ist wie folgt aufgebaut: Nach einer kurzen Einleitung erhalten Leser/innen eine allgemeine Einführung in Konzepte und Ansätze ethischer Bildung und Werteerziehung. [...] Anschließend finden Leser/innen zentrale Theorien und Erkenntnisse über die Moralentwicklung von Kindern, gefolgt von Überlegungen zu Beziehung und Kommunikation im Bereich der ethischen Bildung und Werteerziehung. Den Hauptteil des Handbuchs bilden Beschreibungen und Beispiele verschiedener Methoden, die Sie im Unterricht für ethische Bildung und Werteerziehung nutzen können. [...] Der Leitfaden schließt mit hilfreichen Tipps, wie Sie Ihre eigenen Unterrichtsmaterialien entwickeln können. (Autor)
Bogoslovni vestnik, 2021
Povzetek: Sodobni liberalizem v izhodišče postavlja posameznikovo avtonomijo. Zato ni presenetlji... more Povzetek: Sodobni liberalizem v izhodišče postavlja posameznikovo avtonomijo. Zato ni presenetljivo, da sta leto 2020 in pandemija, ki ga je zaznamovala, razkrila pomembne meje tega pogleda, posebej ko je šlo za omejevanje svoboščin, ki so se pred tem mnogim zdele samoumevne. Članek obravnava povezani temi. Prva je ustrezno razumevanje pojma avtonomije-tu nasproti liberalističnemu pojmovanju postavlja kantovsko razumevanje avtonomije. Slednje je mnogo bolj prikladno, če želimo razumeti čas, v katerem živimo, in najti poti iz pogostih slepih ulic, ki so v povezavi z pandemijo nastale. Druga tema je zaupanje, ki se je tudi pokazalo kot izjemno krhko. Avtorja ponujata razumevanje zaupanja kot moralne in spoznavne vrline in hkrati izpostavljata, da so avtonomija, avtoriteta in zaupanje relacijski pojavi, saj presegajo razumevanje posameznika kot neodvisnega in razumnega delovalca in predpostavljajo drugega. Še več-predpostavljajo, da moramo biti kot posamezniki v deljenem, skupnem prostoru (političnem, moralnem, spoznavnem ipd.) z drugimi. Vrline, tako moralne kot spoznavne, nam pri orientaciji in delovanju v takšnem prostoru pomagajo. Problem sodobnega liberalizma je tudi v tem, da je privedel do pomanjkanja takšnih skupnih prostorov in pomanjkanja poudarka na ustreznih vrlinah, ki bi presegale vrline ,avtonomnih, racionalnih in neodvisnih' posameznikov.
Rorty argues against both metaphysical realism and correspondence theory of truth. His picture of... more Rorty argues against both metaphysical realism and correspondence theory of truth. His picture of the world is holistic. We ourselves endorse holism, which however is different from Rorty’s in that it is compatible both with metaphysical realism and with the correspondence theory of truth. This position is made possible by contextualizing. Rorty has context as well, but just one, the pragmatist context. As everything happens at one level for Rorty, common sense comes in opposition with his picture. Rorty is entangled into the following dilemma: either he gives up his picture of the world and keeps common sense realism, or he keeps his metaphysical picture of the world and appropriates the project of revising common sense. He decides for the later. We think that the price is too high. Rorty’s dismissal of common sense is too quick, especially if there is an alternative holistic strategy available to explain common sense. Our alternative holistic strategy enables us to appropriate bot...
Moral philosophy has for quite some time practiced the use of thought experiments in argumentativ... more Moral philosophy has for quite some time practiced the use of thought experiments in argumentative strategies. Thought experiments can be understood as imagined scenarios with a certain level of complexity and novelty, which are usually designed and used to elicit our responses or moral intuitions in order to make our use of key moral concepts clearer or in order to support or reject a particular ethical theory, general moral principle, hypothesis, deeply held moral belief or presupposition. Such imagined cases also often offer us a new insight, illumination and perspective on a given problem. One of the open questions is what is the epistemic status and value of such generated intuitions given their variability and instability. The paper combines a moderate defence of moral intuitions with a discussion of selected aspects of the use of cases in ethics education.
The paper discusses the relationship between the defeasibility of legal norms and legal positivis... more The paper discusses the relationship between the defeasibility of legal norms and legal positivism. It begins by introducing the concept of defeasibility. by using defeasibility in the legal domain one usually aims to stress either the defeasible nature of law (legal norms) itself as the admitting of exceptions that cannot be fully spelled out and specified in advance (a norm-based account of legal defeasibility) or defeasibility in legal reasoning as a consequence of the interpretation of legal provisions or concepts (an interpretation-based account of legal defeasibility). Several different models or interpretations of defeasibility are discussed in order to get a better grip on the issue. What they have in common is that they presuppose a value-laden background of defeasible norms that can lead towards making an exception to the norm. This raises an interesting issue about whether such defeasibility of a legal norm is compatible with legal positivism. After presenting several distinct understandings of legal positivism, the paper argues that the existence of such presupposed values and defeasibility of legal norms is not compatible with strong and exclusive legal positivism.
Synthesis Philosophica, 2014
The paper discusses the notions of defeasibility in ge eral and defeasible norms in particular (w... more The paper discusses the notions of defeasibility in ge eral and defeasible norms in particular (with focus on legal and moral defeasibi lity). By focusing on defeasibility of legal and moral norms it aims to arrive to a more general understanding of defeasibility covering the whole field of normativity, including all normative domains. It begins by outlining an understanding of defeasible norms that closely link s them to the notion of an exception. Then it further focuses on two attempts that relate defeasi ble norms to some sort of normalcy conditions, i.e. views defeasible norms as holding normal circumstances only. By investigating this proposal it addresses a question whether such a model allows for defeasibility to go “all the way down” in the normative domain, o r is it merely a feature of some sort of mid-level norms.
Contextualism has been a prominent epistemological theory for more than twenty years. Its central... more Contextualism has been a prominent epistemological theory for more than twenty years. Its central claim is that standards for justification and of knowledge ascriptions can vary from one context to another context. However this in not the end of the story, for one must subsequently explain these variations of standards in order to avoid arbitrariness. Two strategies offer themselves at this point: generalism and particularism. We argue that the latter could provide a viable support for an overall contextualist approach. David Lewis in his paper "Elusive Knowledge" provides a nice case of contextual epistemology and points to several important aspects of knowledge. But we disagree with Lewis on two points of his account: (i) knowledge without justification and (ii) set of exceptionless rules that determine relevant alternatives. We preserve the overall conception of knowledge as justified true belief and attempt to work out a contextualist account of knowledge by pointing t...
Bogoslovni vestnik, 2020
Netransparentnost delovanja je problem mnogih področij rabe umetne inteligence (UI)-tudi, in mord... more Netransparentnost delovanja je problem mnogih področij rabe umetne inteligence (UI)-tudi, in morda še posebej, sistemov algoritemskega odločanja. Problem ni le tehnične narave, temveč tudi etične. Kljub temu se algoritemski sistemi, ki temeljijo na umetni inteligenci, uporabljajo vse pogosteje in na vse več področjih. V pomoč so nam tudi v času izrednih razmer in trenutna pandemija COVID-19 ni izjema. V času te pandemije so se mnogi sistemi UI izkazali za izredno uporabne, vseeno pa njihova uporaba-v veliki meri tudi zaradi njihove pogosto netransparentne narave-odpira mnoga etična vprašanja. Postavljeni smo pred dilemo, ali je uporaba uspešnih sistemov, ki pa ne delujejo transparentno, lahko (v izrednih razmerah) etično sprejemljiva. Kot možni se kažejo predvsem trije odzivi: prilagoditev tradicionalnega pojmovanja transparentnosti pri odločanju, prilagoditev normativnih izhodišč ali pa omejitev uporabe netransparentnih sistemov algoritemskega odločanja.
Open Journal of Philosophy, 2019
Ontology is the name of the philosophical discipline that provides answers about what there is. T... more Ontology is the name of the philosophical discipline that provides answers about what there is. The view laid out in the paper, i.e. austere realism, is realistic in that it defends the existence of a thought and language independent world. It is also inclined towards austerity in that it does not take this world to be as richly ontologically populated with entities as common sense initially presupposes. Yet it is a view that results from common sense taking a reflexive attitude about its ontological commitments. Despite its austere consequences, according to this view, many thoughts and sentences expressed by common sense are true, provided that truth is not considered as direct correspondence, i.e. not as the ultimate ontological correspondence to the world. This is enabled by the construal of truth as indirect correspondence that merges the world and contextually operative semantic standards. Such a combined ontological cum semantic view seems a plausible and a well defendable position.
Metodički ogledi, 2019
One of the central questions of ethical education is the role that moral theory could or should p... more One of the central questions of ethical education is the role that moral theory could or should play within it. This concerns not only the issue of pedagogical work with children, but also the establishment of professional education and training for teachers and other educators. Contemporary approaches to ethical education emphasise the importance of integrative models and methods, but the issue of moral theory within them has not been explicitly addressed at length. The aim of this paper is thus reflected in the following building blocks and steps. In the first part, I present the concept of ethical education and the field of moral theory. In the second part, I synthetically illuminate the importance of moral theory for ethical education.
Revus, 2016
Članek se ukvarja s pojmom uklonljivosti, s posebnim ozirom na uklonljivost moralnih in pravnih n... more Članek se ukvarja s pojmom uklonljivosti, s posebnim ozirom na uklonljivost moralnih in pravnih norm. Na začetku začrtamo grob oris pojava uklonljivosti, ki je zahteven izziv tako za moralno kot tudi za pravno teorijo. Opozorimo na pogoje in primerjalne prednosti, ki naj bi jih izpolnjeval oz. imel model uklonljivosti. Nadalje se v članku osredotočimo na svojstven model uklonljivosti, ki uporablja pojem normalnih pogojev (normalnosti) da bi zajel omenjeni pojem uklonljivosti norm. Trdimo, da temu modelu pri tem spodleti, posebej z vidika predpostavke nadaljnjih pomembnih norm, za katere imamo upravičene razloge za dvom, da so prav tako uklonljive. Tako ta model ne dopušča, da bi uklonljivost segala do samih temeljev zadevnega normativnega področja in omeji značilnost uklonljivosti na norme na srednji ravni. V zaključku poudarimo nekaj naukov te razprave in jih umestimo v širše polje pluralističnega pristopa k normam.
Revus, 2016
Vojko Strahovnik* Defeasibility, norms and exceptions: normalcy model he paper discusses the noti... more Vojko Strahovnik* Defeasibility, norms and exceptions: normalcy model he paper discusses the notion of defeasibility and focuses speciically on defeasible (moral and legal) norms. First, it delineates a robust notion of the phenomenon of defeasibility, which poses a serious problem for both moral and legal theory. It does this by laying out the conditions and desiderata that a model of defeasibility should be able to meet. It further focuses on a speciic model of defeasibility that utilises the notion of normal conditions (normalcy) to expound the robust notion of defeasibility. It argues that this model fails in its attempt to do this, particularly since it presupposes further pertinent norms and we have reasons to doubt if these are defeasible. It thus does not allow defeasibility to go "all the way down" in the normative domain and limits it merely to a feature of some sort of mid-level norm. In conclusion, it draws lessons from this and positions defeasibility models within a more general pluralistic approach to norms.
Synthesis Philosophica, Aug 23, 2011
The paper discusses the meaning, role and importance of moral identity and character for ethics a... more The paper discusses the meaning, role and importance of moral identity and character for ethics and for leading a good life (the attainably of good life and pursuit of happiness). The modern society is a society of permanent change and the feeling of uncertainty. The world seems fragmented and discontinuous. It is very difficult to form a permanent identity in such a world. In the past the choice of the life project was the choice of all choices. In liquid modernity, identity is flexible and in a state of permanent transformation, in which one perpetually redefines oneself through becoming someone other than one has been so far. The central question from which the papers addresses these topics is whether our moral identity ever provides us with good reasons for acting and further, which of the moral theories are best suited to accommodate a positive answer to that question.
Synthesis Philosophica, Feb 3, 2010
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Papers by Vojko Strahovnik