Es ist, als ob man vergebens aus nächster Nähe zu betrachten suchte, was in weitester Ferne liegt – und dennoch nur scheinbar ein Jenseitiges ist. Etwas unreglementiert erfahren: ist das überhaupt möglich? Die in diesem Band versammelten Beiträge widmen sich der Bestimmung eines Begriffs, der in der kritischen Theorie Adornos einen zentralen, wenngleich nie ausdrücklich benannten Platz einnimmt. In der zahlreich vorhandenen Literatur zu Adorno wird unreglementierte Erfahrung, wenn überhaupt, als ein nur subjektives Phänomen oder gar als ein dem wissenschaftlichen (...) Objektivismus entgegengesetzter Ausdruck individuellen Leids aufgefaßt. Wie hier gezeigt werden soll, geht es allerdings bei der unreglementierten Erfahrung ums Ganze, um nichts weniger als die Möglichkeit von Emanzipation schlechthin. Devi Dumbadze, Christoph Hesse: Einleitung Gerhard Scheit: Erfahrung und jüngstes Gericht. Eine Anmerkung zum verborgenen Freiheitsbegriff der Kritischen Theorie Dirk Braunstein: Die Erfahrung der Gesellschaft. Grundsätzliches zur philosophischen Erkenntnis Simon Duckheim: Alles ganz anders. Adornos Utopie der Erkenntnis am Beispiel Prousts Devi Dumbadze: »Religion, IST«. Ideologie und unreglementierte Erfahrung Isabelle Klasen: »Erfahrung wider das Ich«. Überlegungen zu einem Schönen nach Adorno Irene Lehmann: Die möglichen Unendlichkeiten des Unverständlichen und die Formen der Kritik. Luigi Nono und das engagierte Kunstwerk Christoph Hesse: Virtuelle Erfahrung Fabian Kettner: Eine nutzlose Erfahrung. Der Tod als Instanz unreglementierter Erfahrung. (shrink)

Der erste Band der Gesammelten Schriften von Hermann Schweppenhäuser enthält Studien und Abhandlungen über Sprache, Literatur und Kunst, die zuerst im Zeitraum zwischen 1957 und 2007 publiziert wurden. Dazu gehören Schweppenhäusers Frankfurter Dissertation über Heideggers Theorie der Sprache; ein berühmter, lange nicht mehr erhältlicher Lexikonartikel zur Sprachphilosophie; kürzere Abhandlungen zum Sprachbegriff bei Benjamin, Adorno und Horkheimer; Aufsätze zu ästhetischen Themen sowie Essays über Johann Gottfried Seume, Friedrich Maximilian Klinger, Hermann Hesse, Stefan George und Botho Strauß. Außerdem wird hier erstmals (...) eine Arbeit über Sprachsoziologie veröffentlicht, die ursprünglich für die Soziologischen Exkurse des Instituts für Sozialforschung in Frankfurt geschrieben worden war, dann aber nicht in den 1956 erschienenen Band aufgenommen wurde. (shrink)

Critical Rationalism has become an influential philosophy in many areas including a great number of scientific disciplines. Yet only few studies have been devoted to the role of the philosophy of Sir Karl Popper in the vast field of education. This volume undertakes to fill this gap. Leading scholars in the educational science and in the philosophy of education have critically written for this volume in an attempt to elaborate Popper's methodological and socio-political views and confront them with a globally (...) relevant spectrum of scientific objectives and cultural values. Among the topics discussed are moral values, education for freedom and its consequences for the student, and the critical attitude in political education. Attention is also paid to the historiography of this significant philosophical movement. Regarding pedagogical research, the empirical paradigm, the falsificatory approach to educational research, the complex relationship between educational theory and practice as well as the problem of value-neutrality in educational science are objects of critical analysis. (shrink)

English summary: This volume contains controversial views and discussions on the purpose, function, analysis and justification of value judgments and norms in the social sciences and humanities.

This paper supplements an earlier one (Wassermann 1978b). Its views aim to reinforce those of Lewontin and other prominent evolutionists, but differ significantly from the opinions of some philosophers of science, notably Popper (1957) and Olding (1978). A basic distinction is made between 'laws' and 'theories of mechanisms'. The 'Theory of Evolution' is not characterized by laws, but is viewed here as a hypertheory which explains classifiable evolutionary phenomena in terms of subordinate classifiable theories of 'evolution-specific mechanisms' (ESMs), each of (...) which could apply to a host of species. Adaptations could result from ESMs that are rooted in molecular complementarities. The status of optimization theories that aim to predict best adapted states of organisms or populations is also discussed. (shrink)

In this book, Michael Arbib, a researcher in artificial intelligence and brain theory, joins forces with Mary Hesse, a philosopher of science, to present an integrated account of how humans 'construct' reality through interaction with the social and physical world around them. The book is a major expansion of the Gifford Lectures delivered by the authors at the University of Edinburgh in the autumn of 1983. The authors reconcile a theory of the individual's construction of reality as a network (...) of schemas 'in the head' with an account of the social construction of language, science, ideology and religion to provide an integrated schema-theoretic view of human knowledge. The authors still find scope for lively debate, particularly in their discussion of free will and of the reality of God. The book integrates an accessible exposition of background information with a cumulative marshalling of evidence to address fundamental questions concerning human action in the world and the nature of ultimate reality. (shrink)

Introduction -- Repression, ignorance, and undone science -- The epistemic dimension of the political opportunity structure -- The politics of meaning: from frames to design conflicts -- The organizational forms of counterpublic knowledge -- Institutional change, industrial transitions, and regime resistance politics -- Contemporary change: liberalization and epistemic modernization -- Conclusion.

Nurse philosopher Sally Gadow (1999) has proposed the relational narrative between patient and nurse as a ‘postmodern turn’ for nursing ethics. She has conceptualized this moral approach as the construction by patient and nurse of a coauthored narrative describing the good they are seeking, as well as the means to achieve this good. The purpose of this article is to provide an elaboration of Gadow's seminal conceptualization of relational narrative based on her writings and those of other philosophers. The article (...) will further develop relational narrative's foundations in relationship and narrative and will explore engagement as a dimension essential to its creation and growth. The elaboration first builds on the notion of relationship as foundational to this postmodern moral perspective. Narrative then is advanced as being at the heart of the patient–nurse relationship and their relational narrative, based on an exploration of narrative's role in the moral realm as an epistemology for patient and nurse. Finally, the dialogic and embodied engagement expressed by a relational narrative is developed as a critical element of the ethic. (shrink)

This paper is intended as a contribution to a recent vigorous debate inThe Times, between the distinguished journalist Bernard Levin, the eminent Oxford economist Wilfred Beckerman and the Archbishop of York, John Habgood, among others. The debate concerns morality, ‘free will’ and determinism. As a former German Jew, who lost close relatives at Auschwitz and who suffered personally severely in my youth under daily virulent Nazi persecution, I obviously cannot remain strictly detached and neutral. Yet, I shall attempt to retain (...) as much neutrality as possible, since I think that the main rivals in this debate have all some very relevant, interesting and valid things to say. Let me also state other, probably very relevant, biases. I am an ardent Zionist. In addition, I am a diehard mechanistic materialist as regards basic philosophy, although I am tolerant of other people's religious feelings, because I realize that my materialism is as metaphysical as their religious views. With this as background let me return to the technical issues. Obviously, in a philosophical journal one can write at a level above that ofThe Times, where there is, perhaps, insufficient room to debate philosophical, biological, physical and other niceties in some depth. (shrink)

In this paper I ponder the moral status of conditional threats, in particular the extent to which a threatened party would be permitted to use (lethal) defensive force. I first investigate a mugger case before turning briefly to the more complicated issue of national defence in the face of an invading army. One should not exaggerate the level of protection people under threat owe their conditioned killers simply because what is extorted is of little value. After all, either the conditional (...) threat is willing to kill for something she has no claim on at all, or, if she has a just claim on it - or good reason to believe that she has - she is willing to kill to (re)acquire something of not much worth. In both cases the moral culpability of the conditional threat could be seen as reducing her claim on protection from harm. (shrink)

In this book the author gives a broad overview of different areas of research in nonmonotonic reasoning, and presents some new results and ideas based on his research. The guiding principles are: clarification of the different research activities in the area, which have sometimes been undertaken independently of each other; and appreciation of the fact that these research activities often represent different means to the same ends, namely sound theoretical foundations and efficient computation. The book begins with a discussion of (...) the various types of nonmonotonic reasoning, their applications and their logics. Theorem proving techniques for these logics are also described. The following chapters deal with formulations of nonmonotonic inheritance, and nonmonotonic reasoning based on nonmonotonic rules. The final chapter discusses the achievements in the field in the light of the Yale shooting example. The book will be welcomed by researchers in theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence. (shrink)

It is well known that the process of scientific inquiry, according to Peirce, is drivenby three types of inference, namely abduction, deduction, and induction. What isbehind these labels is, however, not so clear. In particular, the common identificationof “abduction” with “Inference to the Best Explanation” (IBE) begs the question,since IBE appears to be covered by Peirce's concept of induction, not that of abduction.Consequently, abduction ought to be distinguished from IBE, at least on Peirce's account. The main aim of the paper, (...) however, is to show that this distinction is most relevant with respect to current problems in philosophy of science and epistemology (like attempts to supply suitable notions of realism and truth as well as related concepts like coherence and unification). In particular, I also try to show that (and in what way) Peirce's inferential triad can function as a method that ensures both coherence and correspondence. It is in this respect that his careful distinction between abduction and induction (or IBE) ought to be heeded. (shrink)

In May 1956, in his eighty-second year, Jung first discussed with Gerhard Adler the question of the publication of his letters. Over many years, Jung had often used the medium of letters to communicate his ideas to others and to clarify the interpretation of his work, quite apart from answering people who approached him with genuine problems of their own and simply corresponding with friends and colleagues. Many of his letters thus contain new creative ideas and provide a running (...) commentary on his work. From some 1,600 letters written by Jung between the years 1906-1961, the editors have selected over 1,000. _Volume 1_, published in 1973, contains those letters written between 1906 and 1950. (shrink)

ABSTRACTDespite advances in the conceptualisation of facial mimicry, its role in the processing of social information is a matter of debate. In the present study, we investigated the relationship b...