In seiner Spätschrift De apice theoriae von 1464 entwickelt Nikolaus von Kues einen Wahrheitsbegriff, der sich fundamental von dem scholastischen Denken des Mittelalters unterscheidet. Indem sich die philosophische Suche der dogmatischen Methoden der Metaphysik entledigt, kann sie aus einer Besinnung auf ihre Möglichkeit neu verstanden werden und markiert den Beginn des neuzeitlichen Denkens.Die originale Leistung des Nikolaus von Kues besteht darin, den theoretischen Anspruch der Vernunft auf Erkenntnis des Übersinnlich-Unbedingten zurückzuweisen, um einen Zugang zu Gott zu finden, der sich im (...) Wissen als Schau ereignet. Er legt dar, daß die an das Begreifen gebundene Suche nach Wahrheit aporetisch ist und durch eine transzendentale Reflexion, die Gott selbst ist und im menschlichen Intellekt zur Selbsterkenntnis gelangt, zu ersetzen ist. (shrink)

With the help of renowned logician Taylor Swift, Theresa Helke introduces four fundamental paradoxes: the Liar, Epimenides’, the Truth-Teller, and the No-No.

In this article, I present a philosophy-of-language assignment which emerges as the hero in a fable with the following trio of villains:ness, Parroting, and Boredom. Building on Penny Weiss’s “Making History of Ideas Classes Relevant”, and serving students taking an introductory course which covers Western theories of meaning, the “You are there” essay conquers Abstractness by requiring students to make a connection between the material and their lives, rendering theories relevant. It conquers Parroting by requiring them to apply theories to (...) new examples. And it conquers Boredom by producing papers whose originality can not only surprise but also remind the instructor reading them how meaningful the original theories are. In addition, I present a way to adapt the Weiss framework such that it’s inclusive, and discuss my experience piloting and negotiating the assignment. As appendices, I include materials which an instructor can use to scaffold the assignment. Note that beyond dispatching Abstractness, Parroting, and Boredom, the assignment invites collaborative/cooperative learning, fosters learner autonomy, and lends itself to online course delivery. (shrink)

This thesis is about indicative conditionals and apparent counterexamples to classically valid argument forms. Specifically, it applies the following four theories: - material (inspired by Grice (1961, 1975 and 1989)); - possible-worlds (inspired by Stalnaker (1981); Lewis (1976); and Kratzer (2012)), - suppositional (inspired by Adams (1975) and Edgington (1995 and 2014)); and - hybrid (inspired by Jackson (1987)) to try and solve the following two counterexamples: - Vann McGee’s to modus ponens (1985); and - Lewis Carroll’s to modus tollens (...) (1894). I argue that none of the theories I consider can explain – without facing any problems – the three individually plausible but jointly inconsistent theses that give rise to the apparent counterexamples. The three theses of the trilemma are the following: (1) the argument is invalid; (2) the argument is an instance of modus ponens or modus tollens; and (3) modus ponens or modus tollens is valid. (shrink)

Suppose that some contradictions are true – for example, that as I walk through the door, I’m inside and I’m not inside. Then we argue 'if I'm walking through the door, I'm inside; I'm not inside; therefore, I'm not walking through the door' is an invalid instance of modus tollens.

Nicht nur Nationalstaaten, sondern die Idee der Nation selbst hat eine Geschichte. Die Forschungen der letzten Jahre haben sie mehr und mehr als "imaginierte Gemeinschaft" entschlüsselt. Trotz ihrer unbestreitbar durchschlagenden und vieles umwerfenden Gestaltungskraft ist die moderne Nation am ehesten als kulturelles Gebilde, als komplexes Bündel von Ordnungsentwürfen und kollektiven Sinnzuschreibungen zu fassen. Denkmäler zu errichten ist dabei ein - entscheidendes - Merkmal der nationalen Identifikation. In einem transnationalen Vergleich spannt Helke Rausch Denkmal-Topographien in den Metropolen Paris, Berlin und (...) London auf. Sie untersucht, wie Denkmäler als ikonographische Mittel genutzt wurden, um die Nation als Einheit zu schaffen und zu zementieren. (shrink)

In this article we address the question of how many impossible images Escher produced. To answer requires us first to clarify a range of concepts, including content, ambiguity, illusion, and impossibility. We then consider, and reject, several candidates for impossibility before settling on an answer.

Richard McCormick examines the concepts of postmodernity and postmodernism as they apply to West Germany, discussing them against the background of cultural and political upheaval in that country since the 1960s, rather than exclusively in the more familiar setting of intellectual history. Considering six literary and cinematic texts that are marked by a preoccupation with the self and subjectivity, he underscores the crucial influence of feminism on writers and filmmakers--and on the "postmodern." In a broad international context he describes the (...) conflicting forces that affected the West German student movementthe rationalistic tradition of the Weimar Left and more "irrational" influences such as French existentialism and surrealism (as well as the American "Beat" movement and rock & roll)--and shows how these forces played themselves out so that dogmatic Marxist Leninism was repudiated in favor of a "New Subjectivity.". At the center of the discussion are the novels Lenz by Peter Schneider, Class Love (Klassenliebe) by Karin Struck, and Devotion by Botho Strauss, and the films Wrong Move written by Peter Handke and directed by Wim Wenders, Germany, Pale Mother by Helma Sanders-Brahms, and The Subjective Factor by Helke Sander. The author shows how ongoing attempts to attack the separation of emotion from reason, life from art, the private from the public, and the personal from the political brought about changes in outlook, from the 1960s to the early 1980s, that are related to the rise of new political movements--ecology, nuclear disarmament, and feminism. Originally published in 1991. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905. (shrink)