Capabilities and Education

This paper provides an outline about the basic ideas of the capability approach. It will be argued that the capability approach is able to provide an appropriate approach in order to evaluate educational and social human services. As an egalitarian approach to social justice, the capability approach has particular strengths when issues concerning the actual life-conduct of tangible human beings come to the fore. In particular educational aspects of welfare and well-being might thus be well grounded on the Aristotelian reasoning of the capability approach. The paper focuses on the potentially fruitful relations of the capability approach and the philosophy and practice of ‘just’ education referring to the idea of the autonomy of life-practice.

Das Verhältnis zwischen Urheberrecht und Wissenschaft: Auf die Perspektive kommt es an!

Since the advent of digital network technologies, copyright has become a highly contentious political matter. This is also true in the area of scientific works and the scholarly communication system in general. However, whether the relationship between copyright and scholarship is considered problematic and which, if any, alternative approaches to the current system are preferred, depends upon the perspective. In that regard, the article distinguishes a copyright perspective from a perspective that takes as its starting point the philosophy and sociology of science. The article shows that only the latter, scientific perspective is capable of explaining and adequately regulating the current, fundamental change taking place in the scholarly communication system.