Philosophie als -sterben wollen- (Platon) bestimmt die Tradition bis hin zur -Geworfenheit zum Tode- (Heidegger). Die Welt fuhrt sich mit diesem Menschenbild entsprechend auf. Sich absolut setzende Wahrheiten blenden die Wahrnehmung aus, dass wir in einer falschen Welt mit falschem Bewusstsein leben. Der Poet Schiller mokiert sich in seinem Gedicht "Die Taten der Philosophen" (1795) hierzu. In der Schlusszeile spricht er die Krafte an, die aus dem Leben alle Wesen und in besonderer Weise den Menschen bestimmen: HUNGER und LIEBE. Vorliegende (...) Arbeit ist der Versuch einer Theorie des poetischen Menschen aus diesen Urkraften des Lebens. Es ist der Versuch der Wiedervereinigung von KUNST und Mensch und Absage an alle Wahrheits-Ideologien. Der poetische Mensch kennt nur Wahrheiten -auf Zeit-. Einzig im Willen zum Leben kann eine neue Welt gedichtet werden...". (shrink)

The framework of elementary probabilistic operations (EPO) explains the structure of elementary probabilistic reasoning tasks as well as people’s performance on these tasks. The framework comprises three components: (a) Three types of probabilities: joint, marginal, and conditional probabilities; (b) three elementary probabilistic operations: combination, marginalization, and conditioning, and (c) quantitative inference schemas implementing the EPO. The formal part of the EPO framework is a computational level theory that provides a problem space representation and a classification of elementary probabilistic problems based (...) on computational requirements for solving a problem. According to the EPO framework, current methods for improving probabilistic reasoning are of two kinds: First, reduction of Bayesian problems to a type of probabilistic problems requiring less conceptual and procedural competencies. Second, enhancing people’s utilization competence by fostering the application of quantitative inference schemas. The approach suggests new applications, including the teaching of probabilistic reasoning, using analogical problem solving in probabilistic reasoning, and new methods for analyzing errors in probabilistic problem solving. (shrink)

Dans le premier essai, Siegfried L. Mathelet interprète la pointe d’islamophobie qui s’est manifestée pendant le débat sur la « Charte des valeurs » dans le cadre,posé par Fanon, des mésaventures de la conscience nationale postcoloniale. L’auteur revient sur cette discussion issue des études postcoloniales et explore les stéréotypes nativistes et islamophobes à partir des notions de « dissémiNation » et d’« ambivalence » avancées par Homi Bhabha. Il avance ainsi que cette pointe d’islamophobie accompagne une politique identitaire qui (...) trahit le confinement du nationalisme québécois dans un état de résistance passive à l’horizon de l’impérialisme mondial et de l’État postcolonial du Canada. Dans le second essai, Philippe Bernier Arcand revient sur la montée récente du populisme dans la société québécoise. Il esquisse l’émergence d’un nouveau type de discours populiste. Celui-ci tisse un consensus politique en évoquant d’éventuels « ennemis » présents à l’intérieur des frontières et qui menaceraient d’infiltrer les institutions politiques. L’auteur montre comment se scelle au Québec aussi une alliance contre nature rassemblant des conservateurs et des progressistes autour de l’image fantasmée du musulman. (shrink)

Humean Supervenience is a metaphysical model of the world according to which all truths hold in virtue of nothing but the total spatiotemporal distribution of perfectly natural, intrinsic properties. David Lewis and others have worked out many aspects of HS in great detail. A larger motivational question, however, remains unanswered: As Lewis admits, there is strong evidence from fundamental physics that HS is false. What then is the purpose of defending HS? In this paper, we argue that the philosophical merit (...) of HS is largely independent of whether it correctly represents the world’s fundamental structure. In particular, we show that insofar as HS is an apt model of the world’s higher-level structure, it thereby provides a powerful argument for reductive physicalism and explains otherwise opaque inferential relations. Recent criticism of HS on the grounds that it misrepresents fundamental physical reality is, therefore, beside the point. (shrink)

This is the classic work upon which modern-day game theory is based. What began as a modest proposal that a mathematician and an economist write a short paper together blossomed, when Princeton University Press published Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. In it, John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern conceived a groundbreaking mathematical theory of economic and social organization, based on a theory of games of strategy. Not only would this revolutionize economics, but the entirely new field of scientific (...) inquiry it yielded--game theory--has since been widely used to analyze a host of real-world phenomena from arms races to optimal policy choices of presidential candidates, from vaccination policy to major league baseball salary negotiations. And it is today established throughout both the social sciences and a wide range of other sciences. (shrink)

This book represents the views of one of the greatest mathematicians of the twentieth century on the analogies between computing machines and the living human brain.

Dispositional essentialism is a non-Humean view about the essences of certain fundamental or natural properties that looms large in recent metaphysics , not least because it promises to explain neatly the natural modalities such as laws of nature, counterfactuals, causation and chance. In the current paper, however, several considerations are presented that indicate a serious tension between its essentialist core thesis and natural “metaphysical” interpretations of its central explanatory claims.

Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious is grounded in the concept of archetype, which he derived from Neoplatonic philosophy. This term has penetrated into subsequent psychological and culturological concepts, becoming popular nowadays in the context of research on culture due to its connection with the symbol, myth, image. Most researchers of Jung’s work forget that this concept appeared in his texts relatively late, and at that time the psychiatrist had already been developing his thought for almost twenty years. He created (...) the concept of the collective unconscious and its main assumptions without this seemingly key concept. Others were used instead, i.e. the primary image, pre-image, imago, psychic dominant. The aim of the article is to show the differences in meaning between the term archetype and earlier concepts, to explain its relationship with the image, and to indicate the philosophical and anthropological grounds on which Jung based his psychoanalytic thought. (shrink)

The symbolism of Jacob and Esau -- On the collective symbolism of the brother motif -- Layers of the unconscious: the interpretation of mythology.

The influence of emotion on episodic and autobiographical memory in schizophrenia was investigated. Using an experiential approach, the states of awareness accompanying recollection of pictures from the IAPS and of associated autobiographical memories was recorded. Results show that schizophrenia impairs episodic and autobiographical memories in their critical feature: autonoetic awareness, i.e., the type of awareness experienced when mentally reliving events from one’s past. Schizophrenia was also associated with a reduction of specific autobiographical memories. The impact of stimulus valence on memory (...) performance was moderated by clinical status. Patients with schizophrenia recognized more positive than negative pictures, and recalled more positive than negative autobiographical memories while controls displayed the opposite pattern. A hypothesis in terms of a fundamental executive deficit underlying these impairments is proposed. (shrink)

In an overview of developments spanning the past seventy years, Siegfried Zielinski discusses how the means of technology-based communication assumed a systemic character and how theory, art, and criticism were operative in this process. [... After the Media] advocates for a distinction to be made between online existence and offline being.

In this paper, we argue that the popular claim that laws of nature explain their instances creates a philosophical puzzle when it is combined with the widely held requirement that explanations need to be underpinned by ‘wordly’ relations. We argue that a “direct solution” to the puzzle that accounts for both explanatory laws and explanatory realism requires endorsing at least a radical metaphysics. Then, we examine the ramifications of a “skeptical solution”, i.e., dissolving it by giving up at least one (...) of these two claims, and argue that adopting it is more favorable to Humean reductionists than to anti-reductionists about laws of nature. (shrink)

Musik ist anders. Durch Sprechen und Schreiben ist sie nicht zu ersetzen. Dennoch erzeugt sie den Wunsch nach Verständigung: über Musik selbst und über Zusammenhänge, die sie zu dem werden lassen, was sie ist. Auch wenn sie sich medial stets autonom verwirklicht, so ist Musik nicht isoliert. Die klingende Kunst reagiert - auf andere Musik, aber auch auf soziale oder ästhetische Bedingungen ihrer Zeit, wenngleich mit eigenen Mitteln. Der Band versammelt 35 Beiträge zur Musik von der Renaissance bis zum Bebop (...) und Techno, die aus musik- und literaturwissenschaftlichen, theologischen, philosophischen, philologischen und analytischen Perspektiven an diesen Gedanken anschliessen. (shrink)

Applying the reciprocity instinct to monetary transactions implies that the reaction to monetary debt and monetary credit are similar. However, evidence suggests an asymmetry. I suggest that the “autonomy instinct” fits better with human behavior towards money. I show that people value autonomy, and I show how money can serve this instinct. (Published Online April 5 2006).