Jobs Paul

Jobst Paul (* 1946 in Ludwigsburg ) is a German teacher and linguist , literary and cultural scientist . He is a research associate at the Duisburg Institute for Linguistic and Social Research , where he is a. a. concerned with racism and anti-Semitism .

Life

Paul studied German and English at the universities of Tübingen, Heidelberg, Newcastle upon Tyne (England) and Freiburg im Breisgau and was trained by Siegfried Jäger at the University of Duisburg-Essen in 2003 with the dissertation The "animal" construct as a basic principle in exclusionary discourses. A discourse analytical study on Dr. phil. PhD.

He was senior teacher for German, English and ethics and philosophy in Sulz am Neckar and Kamp-Lintfort . Paul has been a research assistant at the Duisburg Institute for Linguistic and Social Research (DISS) since 1990 . There he works u. a. with racism and anti-Semitism, in particular with Judeo-Christian relations, with Jewish social ethics, with “binary reductionism” and with didactic concepts against exclusion. In 2004/05 he headed the interdisciplinary project group “State, Nation, Society” and is currently responsible for the edition of German-Jewish authors of the 19th century. Writings on State, Nation, Society , published by Böhlau Verlag in cooperation between the Duisburg Institute for Linguistic and Social Research and the Salomon Ludwig Steinheim Institute for German-Jewish History at the University of Duisburg-Essen .

Bioethics

Between 1989 and 1998 Jobst Paul was involved in the German Singer debate , the German euthanasia debate, in the subsequent US bioethics and fundamental rights debate in Germany and in the resistance to the so-called bioethics convention of the Council of Europe.

Together with Wilma Kobusch ✝ (Gelsenkirchen), Erika Feyerabend (Essen) and Ursula Fuchs (Düsseldorf), Paul founded the citizens' initiatives' Citizens Against Bioethics' and 'International Initiative Against the Bioethics Convention', which succeeded in establishing a broad alliance among others bring together German social associations, associations for the disabled and those affected, from churches and political parties. In 1995 Jobst Paul was a hearing person in the German Bundestag.

The reason for the German Singer debate, the German euthanasia debate and the subsequent bioethics and fundamental rights debate in Germany were theoretical and institutional advances in philosophy ( Peter Singer ) and human research, in particular by representatives of US bioethics (applied ethics ), In the context of human research, to enable the restriction of certain basic individual rights, including the individual right to life, in order not to jeopardize future progress in research for the benefit of humanity as a whole. At the same time, within the framework of the health system, restrictions on measures to extend and support life (active and passive euthanasia) and the privatization of health systems were called for. The resistance to these advances was linked in particular to the US bioethical distinction between so-called 'persons', who are supposed to enjoy full human dignity and human rights, and so-called 'non-persons', who only have reduced, possibly no human dignity or human rights should come.

In the face of public resistance in Germany, the German government gave up its attempt in 1998 to join the so-called bioethics convention of the Council of Europe. According to the community of interest groups Critical Bioethics Germany, “over 100 associations and over 11 million people opposed the bioethics convention of the Council of Europe” during the actions of the citizens' initiatives' Citizens Against Bioethics' and 'International Initiative Against the Bioethics Convention' .

The term 'person' was nevertheless included in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union . The charter was drawn up between December 1999 and October 2000 under the direction of Roman Herzog . It was originally part II of the European Constitutional Treaty, which was signed on October 29, 2004 and which should come into force in 2006, but then failed. The Charter has now become legally binding as a stand-alone document by inserting a reference to it in the Lisbon Treaty (2009) (Article 6). In addition, the UNESCO Declaration on the Human Genome also shows tradeoffs between human rights, which are to be enjoyed by the human individual, and preferred, overriding human rights, which are to be enjoyed by humanity as a whole.

As a consequence of the German debate, there was a respect campaign in 1995 and a realignment of “Aktion Sorgekind” and on March 1, 2000 it was renamed “ Aktion Mensch ”. The debate also led to the establishment of the Bundestag Enquete Commissions Law and Ethics of Modern Medicine (2000–2002), Ethics and Law of Modern Medicine (2003–2005) and, since 2001, advice to the legislature by experts in the National Ethics Council. This was replaced in 2007 by the German Ethics Council and is located at the German Bundestag.

Binarism thesis / 'animal' construct

In 1991, Jobst Paul presented the outlines of an analysis concept which, beyond previous research on racism, aims to decipher the depth code of text and visual statements of de-humanization. In more recent publications, he has expanded the fundamentals of the concept and its use in statements analysis considerably.

The concept is based on the assumption that the Western cultural tradition has not produced different codes of degradation, but a single code that can be directed against constructed 'minorities' for different reasons (homophobic, sexist, racist, anti-Semitic, authoritarian, etc.). According to Paul, the Western code of degradation is binary structured and 'empty', in that it evokes the ideal 'good' portrait of the I / We group solely through the binary opposition to the (completely) 'bad' portrait of the de-humanized minority.

The positive self-attribution of the I / We group ('human', 'civilized', or 'rational') then always takes place via a head metaphor, which in the deep structure is defined as (total) selflessness, work for and devotion to the collective - can be coded. The negative attribution of the 'non-human', 'non-civilized', 'irrational', 'savage' as a portrait of the belittled 'you group', on the other hand, takes place via a body-metaphor, which the counterpart as' selfish 'instinct automatons' without a head ', but often with instrumental (actually:' cerebellar ') reason.

According to Paul, the narrative elements of belittling are composed of the motif of 'stupidity' and the frontally disparaging sex, eating and elimination motifs. With the help of the entire narrative, the inability or unwillingness to 'drive control' should be attributed to target groups, i. H. decoded: the inability to accumulate goods for the collective. The narrative is thus at the same time compatible with capitalist postulates as for a form of Christian “love of neighbor” interpreted in terms of “civilization”. Following Jacques Derrida , who speaks of the philosophical animal , Paul also concludes that the narrative is congruent with the polemical term 'animal' that has been handed down in Western philosophy and which has also determined Western dealings with (real) animals certainly. The term 'animal construct' is derived from this.

According to Paul, the analysis concept can also be transferred to the decoding of visual and media forms of de-humanization (violence aesthetics) and linked to the analyzes that Erich Fromm and, after him, Max Horkheimer / Theodor W. Adorno etc. in the 1950s As part of their work on 'authoritarian character'.

Fonts (selection)

• with Heiko Kauffmann , Helmut Kellershohn (eds.): Völkische Bande. Decadence and rebirth. Analysis of right-wing ideology (= Edition DISS . Vol. 8). Unrast, Münster 2005, ISBN 3-89771-737-9 .
• with Michael Brocke , Margarete Jäger , Siegfried Jäger , Iris Tonks: Visions of a just society. The Discourse of German-Jewish Journalism in the 19th Century . Böhlau, Cologne a. a. 2009, ISBN 978-3-412-20315-3 .
• with Klaus Holz , Heiko Kauffmann (Ed.): The negation of Judaism. Anti-Semitism as a religious and secular weapon (= Edition DISS . Volume 22). Unrast, Münster 2009, ISBN 978-3-89771-751-0 .
• with Michael Brocke (ed.): God knowledge and image of man (= German-Jewish authors of the 19th century, anthology . Vol. 1). Böhlau, Cologne a. a. 2011, ISBN 978-3-412-20452-5 .
• with Helmut Kellershohn (ed.): The struggle for spaces. Neoliberal and extreme right concepts of hegemony and expansion . Unrast, Münster 2013, ISBN 978-3-89771-763-3 .
• with Michael Brocke (Ed.): Charity and Mercy. Writings on Jewish social ethics (= German-Jewish authors of the 19th century, anthology . Vol. 2). Böhlau, Cologne a. a. 2014, ISBN 978-3-412-22279-6 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Jobst Paul in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Jobst Paul  in the German Digital Library
• Jobs Paul at Unrast Verlag
• Paul works at the Duisburg Institute for Linguistic and Social Research

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Oliver Tolmein: Estimated Life. The new 'euthanasia' debate. Konkret Literatur Verlag, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 978-3-922144-97-7 .
2. ^ Jobst Paul: The Bioethics and Basic Values ​​Debate in Germany (1993–1998) - a documentation. (Duisburg Institute for Language and Social Research) Duisburg 1998. ISBN 978-3-927388-67-3 .
3. ↑ Information page of the Interests Community Critical Bioethics Germany on the Biomedicine Convention (Bioethics Convention) of the Council of Europe [1] . Retrieved February 25, 2016.
4. ↑ See BioSkop eV, Forum for the observation of the life sciences and their technologies (Essen). [2]
5. ^ Jobst Paul: On the ethical and legal aspects of the bioethics debate. Contribution to the conference 'Because we are allowed to do what we can ...? Bioethical positions in the discussion 'of the Evangelical Academy in the Rhineland from 6. – 7. October 2006 Archive link ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved February 25, 2016. 
6. ^ Extra compilation of all papers of the international initiative against the bioethics convention or of citizens against bioethics [3] . Retrieved February 25, 2016.
7. ^ Jobst Paul: Written and Oral Statement on the Bundestag Hearing on the Bioethics Convention . May 1995. Secretariat of the Legal Committee of the German Bundestag. 1995; see. German Bundestag: Printed matter 13/1816 of June 27, 1995 [4] . Retrieved February 25, 2016.
8. ^ Jobst Paul: The term, the ideology and the history of "bioethics". Contribution to the parliamentary inquiry of the Green Parliamentary Club Bioethics versus Human Rights - The Significance of the Bioethics Convention with special attention to people with disabilities on Tuesday, March 18, 1997 in Vienna, Parliament, Budgetsaal [5] . Retrieved March 24, 2016.
9. ^ Jobst Paul: Biopolitics and the Doctrine of Exceptions - Analysis and Criticism of Applied Ethics. [6] In: Susanne Spindler, Iris Tonks (eds.): Exceptions. Crisis and Future of Democracy. Unrast, Münster 2007, pp. 26–49. Retrieved February 25, 2016.
10. ↑ Cf. u. a. Vera Wenz: Research with persons incapable of giving consent from the perspective of German and English law. Cuvillier, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 978-3-86727-019-9 , pp. 20ff.
11. ^ Jobst Paul: In the network of bioethics. DISS (Duisburg Institute for Language and Social Research) Duisburg 1994. ISBN 978-3-927388-43-7
12. ^ Jobst Paul: The term, the ideology and the history of "bioethics". s. o. [7] . Retrieved March 24, 2016.
13. ↑ Extra compilation of all papers of the international initiative against the bioethics convention and citizens against bioethics. [8] Retrieved February 25, 2016.
14. ^ Jobst Paul: The European Person ... on the way from Paris to Lisbon. DISS Journal 17 (2008) [9] . Retrieved March 22, 2016.
15. ↑ Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. (PDF), accessed on March 22, 2016
16. ^ Treaty of Lisbon. , accessed March 22, 2016 .
17. ↑ Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights. [10] / [11] . Retrieved March 22, 2016.
18. ^ Final report of the study commission 'Law and Ethics of Modern Medicine' . Installed by resolution of the German Bundestag on March 24, 2000 [Bundestag printed paper 14/3011]. German Bundestag. Drucksache 14/9020 14th electoral term May 14, 2002 [12] . Retrieved February 25, 2016.
19. ↑ Study Commission 'Ethics and Law of Modern Medicine . [13] Retrieved February 25, 2016.
20. ↑ Publications and documents of the National Ethics Council from 2001 to 2007. Archived copy ( memento of the original dated February 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 25, 2016. 
21. ^ Publications of the German Ethics Council . Archived copy ( memento of the original from February 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 25, 2016. 
22. ^ Jobst Paul: As a reminder: animal metaphors and exclusion - comments on the so-called 'Singer' debate. In: Siegfried Jäger, Jobst Paul (ed.): From people and pigs. The Singer Discourse and its Role for Neo-Racism. (DISS -tex No. 19) 1991, pp. 30-43.
23. ^ Jobst Paul: 'Memory' as a competence. For didactic dealing with racism, anti-Semitism and exclusion. Duisburg Institute for Linguistic and Social Research, Duisburg 1999 (DISS -tex 31); ders .: The 'animal' construct - and the birth of racism. On the cultural presence of a damning argument. DISS-Edition (Unrast-Verlag) Münster 2004. ISBN 978-3-89771-731-2 .
24. ^ Jobst Paul: Is homophobia entertaining? Statement on June 11, 2015 at the congress' Respect instead of resentment. Strategies against the new wave of homophobia and transphobia 'in Berlin (LSVD). [14] Retrieved July 2, 2016.
25. ↑ See the following: Jobst Paul: Reading the code of dehumanization: the animal construct deconstructed. In: Polifonia [Estudos Linguísticos, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso / Cuiabá-MT - Brasil] No 33, 2016 [Estudos críticos do discurso e realismo crítico contribuições e divergências], pp. 149-178. [15] Retrieved July 5, 2016.
26. ↑ Cf. Christoph Mackinger: '... the key to the pogrom' - animal metaphors in the racism of the European sciences of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. In: Chimaira - Working Group for Human-Animal Studies (Hrsg.): Animals Pictures Economies: Current Research Issues in Human-Animal Studies , pp. 187–211, esp. Pp. 193ff. limited preview in Google Book search. Retrieved July 2, 2016.
27. ↑ Jobst Paul: 'Spirit' vs. 'Animal': racism and the aesthetics of violence. In: Osnabrücker Contributions to Language Theory , Issue 46 (1990), pp. 210–228; ders ,: Of gladiators, border guards and collateral murder. On the psycho-social dynamics of media violence aesthetics . In: Raden, Rolf van; Jäger, Siegfried (Ed.), In the grip of the media. Crisis production and subjectification effects . Münster: Unrast 2011, pp. 179-200. [16] Retrieved July 2, 2016.
28. ↑ Cf. u. a. Erich Fromm: About the method and tasks of an analytical social psychology. In: Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung , 1932, Volume 1, pp. 28–54; ders .: Studies on Authority and Family . Research reports from the Institute for Social Research. Paris 1936; Theodor W. Adorno, Else Frenkel-Brunswik, Daniel J. Levinson, R. Nevitt Sanford: The Authoritarian Personality . New York, 1950.