Article: “The Ethics of Digital Preservation”

Peter Johan Lor and J.J. Britz. “An ethical perspective on political-economic issues in the long-term preservation of digital heritage.” Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 61, no. 11 (November 2012): 2153-2164.

The article provides an overview of the main ethical and associated political-economic aspects of the preservation of born-digital content and the digitization of analogue content for purposes of preservation. The term “heritage” is used broadly to include scientific and scholarly publications and data. Although the preservation of heritage is generally seen as inherently “good,” this activity implies the exercise of difficult moral choices. The plexity of the preservation of digital heritage is illustrated by means of two hypothetical cases. The first deals with the harvesting and preservation in a wealthy country of political websites originating in a less affluent country. The second deals with a project initiated by a wealthy country to digitize the cultural heritage of a less affluent country. The ethical reflection that follows is structured within the framework of social justice and a set of information rights that are identified as corollaries of generally recognized human rights. The main moral agents, that is, the parties that have an interest, and may be entitled to exercise rights, in relation to digital preservation, are identified. The responsibilities that those who preserve digital content have toward these parties, and the political-economic considerations that arise, are then analyzed.

Call for Papers: “Our Entrepreneurial Future: East, West, North, and South”

Call for Papers 2013, The Association of Private Enterprise Education Annual Conference, Maui, Hawaii, April 14-16, 2013, “Our Entrepreneurial Future: East, West, North, and South.” The Association of Private Enterprise Education (APEE) invites the submission of papers for its 38th International Conference in Maui, Hawaii, April 14-16, 2013. The Association posed of scholars from economics, philosophy, political science, and other disciplines, as well as policy analysts, business executives, and other educators. APEE’s annual meeting explores topics related to private enterprise in an atmosphere that respects market approaches. Presentations reflect the latest research in fields such as regulation, public choice, microeconomics, and Austrian economics, as well as development of instructional techniques. The submission fee for the society’s journal, The Journal of Private Enterprise, is waived for papers presented at the conference.

Publication: “Koers: Bulletin for Christian Scholarship”

Koers promotes the development of Christian scholarship/science in all fields of science and publishes original (mainly reflective) research contributions with an integrated worldview as foundation. We provide a platform for authors to engage constructively and critically with Christian scholarly/scientific points of view in all fields of science.

Book Note: “William Ockham on Metaphysics”

Jenny E. Pelletier. William Ockham on Metaphysics: The Science of Being and God. Leiden: Brill, 2012.

In William Ockham on Metaphysics, Jenny Pelletier offers an account of Ockham’s concept of metaphysics as it emerges throughout his philosophical and theological work. She argues that Ockham (c. 1287-1347) believed metaphysics to be a fruitful branch of philosophy and gives a preliminary description of its distinctive subject-matter. Metaphysics is the science that studies all beings and their most general properties. Ockham was considered by some to be profoundly skeptical of metaphysics. Recent scholarship tends to focus on regional metaphysical issues (e.g. universals, relations), logic or semantics, theory of cognition, concepts, mental language. Jenny Pelletier provides a positive interpretation of Ockham on metaphysics as such that enriches our current understanding of this seminal medieval thinker.

Call for Applications: “PhD Fellowships – (IMPRS Moral Economies)”

The Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Technische Universität Berlin are offering up to 6 doctoral fellowships for the International Max Planck Research School for Moral Economies of Modern Societies (IMPRS Moral Economies). Students admitted to the IMPRS Moral Economies will receive a basic monthly grant to cover their living expenses, presently set at 1,365 EUR. The fellowships mence on October 1, 2013. The program runs for up to four years.