Bert Heinrichs

Forschungszentrum Jülich · Institute of Neurosciences and Medicine (INM)

Wie verändert sich das individuelle und gesellschaftliche Verständnis von Gesundheit und Krankheit durch die Einführung neuer digitaler Technologien? Die Beiträger*innen berücksichtigen technische Aspekte, fokussieren jedoch vor allem darauf, dass die Bestimmung und Grenze zwischen Gesundheit und Krankheit immer stärker auf Quantifizierung oder Dat...

Position papers on artificial intelligence (AI) ethics are often framed as attempts to work out technical and regulatory strategies for attaining what is commonly called trustworthy AI. In such papers, the technical and regulatory strategies are frequently analyzed in detail, but the concept of trustworthy AI is not. As a result, it remains unclear...

Die fortschreitende Verwendung von Verfahren künstlicher Intelligenz provoziert die Frage, inwiefern bei deren ethischer Bewertung auf anthropologische Reflexionen und insbesondere auf ein Kriterium des menschlichen Maßes zurückgegriffen werden kann. Der Beitrag thematisiert das schwierige Verhältnis von Ethik und Natur und erkundet über die Ausein...

Mind and time are elusive. No grand theory has yet emerged that would have provided a fundamental solution to the many puzzles and perplexities associated with the two terms. There is even no consensus on the use of the concepts “mind” and “time.” This situation is neither a semantic nor a theoretical disaster. Instead, it leads to the challenging...

In this paper, we address the question of whether AI should be used for suicide prevention on social media data. We focus on algorithms that can identify persons with suicidal ideation based on their postings on social media platforms and investigate whether private companies like Facebook are justified in using these. To find out if that is the ca...

Informed consent is a widely acknowledged ethical principle that plays a crucial role, both in research ethics and medical ethics. However, empirical findings as well as theoretical considerations suggest that the current model of informed consent might be flawed. In particular, the understanding of information disclosed to patients and research pa...

As a means of preventive medicine early detection and prevention examinations can identify and treat possible health disorders or abnormalities from an early age onwards. However, pediatric examinations are often widely spaced, and thus only snapshots of the children’s and adolescents’ developments are obtained. With e-health applications parents a...

Recent advances in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) are providing automated and in many cases improved decision-making. However, even very reliable AI systems can go terribly wrong without human users understanding the reason for it. Against this background, there are now widespread calls for models of “explainable AI”. In this paper we po...

In this paper, I examine whether the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and automated decision-making (ADM) aggravates issues of discrimination as has been argued by several authors. For this purpose, I first take up the lively philosophical debate on discrimination and present my own definition of the concept. Equipped with this account, I subseq...

Will brain imaging technology soon enable neuroscientists to read minds? We cannot answer this question without some understanding of the state of the art in neuroimaging. But neither can we answer this question without some understanding of the concept invoked by the term “mind reading.” This article is an attempt to develop such understanding. Ou...

In this paper, we use some elements of the philosophical theories of Wilfrid Sellars and Robert Brandom for examining the interactions between humans and machines. In particular, we adopt the concept of the space of reasons for analyzing the status of artificial intelligent agents (AIAs). One could argue that AIAs, like the widely used recommendati...

Background Advance research directives (ARD) have been suggested as a means by which to facilitate research with incapacitated subjects, in particular in the context of dementia research. However, established disclosure requirements for study participation raise an ethical problem for the application of ARDs: While regular consent procedures call f...

New approaches to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze data from neuroimaging but also passively collected data from so-called wearables, such as smartphones or smartwatches, as well as data that can be extracted from social media and other online activities, already make it possible to predict cognitive abilities, personality traits,...

Background: Non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) has been available for almost 10 years. In many countries the test attracted considerable criticism from the start. While most critical comments in this context deal with the (alleged) problem of eugenic selection, I will concentrate on a somewhat broader issue. Content: I will argue that NIPT cle...

Background: Advance research directives (ARD) have been suggested to facilitate research with incapacitated subjects, in particular in the context of dementia research. However, established disclosure requirements for study participation raise an ethical problem for the application of ARDs: While regular consent procedures call for detailed informa...

Aristotelian naturalism has become the object of considerable attention in recent years. In this essay I would like to examine why the concept of the person plays no systematic role in it and the implications of this. One might consider this an inherently problematic approach. Conspicuously little significance is attached to the concept of the pers...

Computer systems for medical diagnosis based on machine learning are not mere science fiction. Despite undisputed potential benefits, such systems may also raise problems. Two (interconnected) issues are particularly significant from an ethical point of view: The first issue is that epistemic opacity is at odds with a common desire for understandin...

Um gängigen Missverständnissen, die der Begriff „Ethikkommission“ mit sich bringt, entgegenzuwirken, schlägt der Autor Heinrichs vor, die Kommissionen stattdessen in „Patientenschutzkommissionen“ umzubenennen. Um der Hauptaufgabe des Probandenschutzes gerecht zu werden, sollten Ethikkommissionen die Aufklärungs- und Einwilligungsprozedur überprüfen...

George Edward Moore (1873–1958) gilt – zusammen mit Bertrand Russell und Ludwig Wittgenstein – als Begründer der analytischen Philosophie. Als »Trinity trinity« verkörpern sie die Hochzeit der Philosophie an der Universität Cambridge im ersten Drittel des 20. Jahrhunderts. Moore steht dabei für einen tiefgreifenden Wandel in der englischen Philosop...

Although the principle of informed consent is well established and its importance widely acknowledged, it has met with criticism for decades. Doubts have been raised for a number of different reasons. In particular, empirical data show that people regularly fail to reproduce the information provided to them. Many critics agree, therefore, that the...

In this article, I seek to show that—contrary to the two prevailing views—applied ethics has neither existed “all along,” nor should it be regarded as an unforeseen philosophical response to new kinds of social challenges in the 1960s. In contrast, applied ethics is a genuine philosophical innovation whose origins can be traced back to the late nin...

In this paper, I will suggest an unorthodox hybrid theory of ethical justification that combines, on an ontological level, a realist approach with constructivist elements. On an epistemological level, the realist part of the theory will be squared with an intuitionist account. Eventually, the suggested hybrid theory will take the form of an intuiti...

Anknüpfend an die Moralphilosophie von Kant wird eine konstruktive Menschenrechtskonzeption skizziert, in der Personen als moralische Wesen das normative Zentrum bilden. Diese wird anschließend mit James Griffins Menschenrechtstheorie kontrastiert. Vor diesem theoretischen Hintergrund wird die Frage diskutiert, welche Aufgaben und Grenzen der prakt...

This document presents the Bonn PRINTEGER Consensus Statement: Working with Research Integrity—Guidance for research performing organisations. The aim of the statement is to complement existing instruments by focusing specifically on institutional responsibilities for strengthening integrity. It takes into account the daily challenges and organisat...

It is generally assumed that applied ethics originated in the United States in the 1960s as a reaction to new social challenges (particularly in the field of medicine), to some extent superseding the metaethical analyses of moral language dominant at that time. This widespread portrayal of applied ethics as an unforeseen reaction of philosophy to n...

Zusammenfassung Unter Off-Label-Use versteht man den zulassungsüberschreitenden Einsatz eines Arzneimittels außerhalb der von Zulassungsbehörden genehmigten Anwendungsgebiete. Er ist in der medizinischen Praxis weit verbreitet und fächerübergreifend zu beobachten. Der Beitrag gibt eine Einschätzung der Off-Label-Anwendung aus ethischer Sicht. Dazu...

Der Aristotelische Naturalismus hat in den vergangenen Jahren viel Aufmerksamkeit auf sich gezogen. In diesem Beitrag möchte ich der Frage nachgehen, warum der Begriff der Person im Aristotelischen Naturalismus keine systematische Rolle spielt und welche Implikationen damit verbunden sind. Man könnte diese Herangehensweise womöglich von vornherein...

Inhalt »Du sollst nicht lügen!« – Moralische Sätze wie dieser bereiten uns im Alltag keinerlei Probleme. Bei näherer Betrachtung werfen sie aber vielfältige Fragen auf, mit denen sich die philosophische Disziplin der Metaethik seit dem Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts befasst. Handelt es sich um wahrheitsfähige Sätze, oder müssen sie als rein subjektiv...

Background: Informed consent is a legal as well as ethical prerequisite in clinical research. For dementia research, informed consent can be a problem if subjects with dementia, whose capacity for understanding and thus also decision making might be limited, are to be examined. This might result in exclusion of dementia patients from research, as c...

For a couple of years, “Aristotelian Naturalism” has been the subject of intensive debates. Among the most prominent proponents of this type of ethical theory are Philippa Foot and John McDowell. At first sight, these approaches are quite attractive for they seem to combine a number of advantages. The central thesis of the present paper is, however...

For a couple of years, "Aristotelian Naturalism" has been the subject of intensive debates. Among the most prominent proponents of this type of ethical theory are Philippa Foot and John McDowell. At first sight, these approaches are quite attractive for they seem to combine a number of advantages. The central thesis of the present paper is, however...

›Bioethik‹ bezeichnet zugleich ein akademisches Themenfeld und eine gesellschaftliche Diskussion (Callahan 1973; Jonsen 1998; Ach/Runtenberg 2002; Düwell/Steigleder 2003). Hier wie dort geht es um ethische Fragen, die mit dem Leben, seinem Wert und seiner Qualität zu tun haben (s. Kap. II. 15, II. 16). Als akademisches Themenfeld hat sich Bioethik...

Hinweise auf thematische Fachbeiträge finden sich jeweils am Ende der einzelnen Artikel des vorliegenden Handbuchs. In dieser Auswahlbibliographie sind ausschließlich solche Titel aufgeführt, die eine umfassendere Perspektive auf die Bioethik einnehmen. Unter »Nachschlagewerke« finden sich einschlägige Handbücher und Lexika, die in zumeist eher kur...

Der Ausdruck ›Altern‹ wird in zwei unterschiedlichen Bedeutungen verwendet, wobei diese sich sowohl auf Lebewesen als auch auf unbelebte Dinge beziehen können. Hier soll allerdings das Alter bzw. Altern des Menschen im Blickpunkt stehen. Erstens bezeichnet ›Altern‹ das chronologische Altern, das Älterwerden, das bereits mit dem Beginn des Lebens se...

Bei dem Argument der schiefen Ebene (slipperyslope-argument; Dammbruchargument) handelt es sich um einen im Alltag und in wissenschaftlichen Diskursen weit verbreiteten Argumentationstyp. Ein Argument der schiefen Ebene kommt meist dann zum Tragen, wenn gegen eine Handlung bzw. Praxis unmittelbar keine moralischen Gründe sprechen. Gegen die Handlun...

Die Bioethik analysiert und bewertet den wissenschaftlich vermittelten Umgang mit Leben. In ihren Teildisziplinen, insbesondere in der Medizinethik, Tierethik und Umweltethik, untersucht sie die Auswirkungen wissenschaftlich-technischer Entwicklungen auf einzelne Personen, die Gesellschaft sowie auf andere Lebensformen und die Umwelt.

Die fortschreitende Technisierung der Medizin stellt die Gesellschaft vor neue ethische Herausforderungen. Die Medizinethik bietet für die daraus resultierenden Fragestellungen bereits einige Lösungsstrategien an, schöpft aber die Potenziale vielfältiger philosophischer Theorien noch nicht aus. Das vorliegende Buch schließt diese Lücke, indem es ni...

In this paper I propose to examine the concept of discrimination from an ethical viewpoint. In a preliminary part, I will point out which aspects of the subject matter I will focus on and which I will leave aside (II). On the basis of the Aristotelian principle “treat like cases alike”, I will continue with a very formal definition, according to wh...

The fission of ethics into two systematically distinct parts has its roots in the architectonics that Kant has developed in his moral philosophy. Despite noticeable differences between “Kant’s applied moral philosophy” (M. Gregor) and contemporary applied ethics this architectonics provides important insights which can contribute to a systematicall...

The fission of ethics into two systematically distinct parts has its roots in the architectonics that Kant has developed in his moral philosophy. Despite noticeable differences between "Kant's applied moral philosophy" (M. Gregor) and contemporary applied ethics this architectonics provides important insights which can contribute to a systematicall...

It has become evident that neuroimaging raises new normative questions that cannot be addressed adequately within the (in this regard unspecific) frameworks of existing research ethics. Questions that are especially troubling are, among others, provoked by incidental findings. Two questions are particularly intricate in view of incidental findings:...

abstractThe so-called Principlism of Beauchamp and Childress is one of the most prominent approaches in bioethics. It has, nevertheless, given rise to an ongoing debate on methodology in bioethics. At the bottom of this debate lies the question whether a multi-principles approach or a single-principle approach is more convincing in bioethics. In th...

Der Wissenschaft als Praxis liegen bestimmte interne Normen zugrunde. Als Verstöße gegen diese Normen des Wissenschaftsbetriebs gelten insbesondere das Plagiat und die Fälschung. Insgesamt lassen sich die in den Wissenschaften wirksamen Regeln für gutes wissenschaftliches Verhalten als Ethos der Wissenschaften beschreiben. Dieses Ethos der Wissensc...

Dr. phil. Michael Fuchs, Studium der Philosophie, der Germanistik, der kath. Theologie und der Erziehungswissenschaften in Bonn, Toulouse und Köln; Geschäftsführer des Instituts für Wissenschaft und Ethik der Universität Bonn und Lehrbeauftragter des Instituts für Philosophie der Universität Bonn; Forschungsschwerpunkte in allgemeiner Ethik, Bioeth...

Platon hat in der Politeia die Auffassung vertreten, es sei „keine Erholung von dem Übel für die Staaten […] und […] auch nicht für das menschliche Geschlecht“ zu erwarten, wenn nicht „entweder die Philosophen Könige werden in den Staaten oder die jetzt so genannten Könige und Gewalthaber wahrhaft und gründlich philosophieren und also beides zusamm...

Definition of the problem Case studies, both with a view to didactical and argumentative purposes, are widely used in applied ethics. However, case studies are often used without methodological considerations concerning the premises and limitations of these kind of studies as methodological tools within ethics. Conclusion The present paper critical...

Classifying an activity as research has considerable normative consequences: On the one side research activities are especially protected ("freedom of research"), on the other side stricter ethical rules legal regulations may apply to such activities, e.g. compulsory review by ethics committees. It is therefore important to find criteria to delimit...

It is important to be able to offer an account of which activities count as scientific research, given our current interest in promoting research as a means to benefit humankind and in ethically regulating it. We attempt to offer such an account, arguing that we need to consider both the procedural and functional dimensions of an activity before we...

Recent advances in genomic research have led to the development of new diagnostic tools, including tests which make it possible to predict the future occurrence of monogenetic diseases (e.g. Chorea Huntington) or to determine increased susceptibilities to the future development of more complex diseases (e.g. breast cancer). The use of such tests ra...