A favorite assumption of anglo-American scholarship is that locke's influence "pervaded the eighteenth century with an almost scriptural authority." examining the philosophy of the german enlightenment, This essay disputes the exaggerated importance ascribed to locke in the eighteenth century. Locke's influence was always limited by native traditions inimical to his thought. His empiricism could not compete with the leibniz-Wolff system in which all german philosophers, Including the lockean sympathizers, Were educated. It is true that around mid-Century and beyond locke attracted (...) a certain following, But those who accepted his theories were minor figures (popular philosophers) and exercised very little influence on the future course of german philosophy (kant). (shrink)

This book provides insight into the work of Oswald Spengler (1880-1936), one of the most prophetic minds of the 20th century, whose dire historical predictions - world wars, ecological disasters, gigantic cities with unrestrained urban sprawl, increasing race conflicts, failure of nerve among the ruling elites, and rapid decline of cultural norms - have more than passed the test of time. Besides focusing on Spengler the prophet and the controversies which surrounded his name in the 1920s, this book also emphasizes (...) Spengler's pioneering role in the development of a comparative study of cultures based on biological principles. (shrink)

Anthropologische Medizin (AM) i. S. Viktor von Weizsäckers sieht grundlegende Selbsterfahrungen des Menschen (Leiblichkeit, Zeitlichkeit u. a.) für den Umgang von Arzt und Krankem als zentral. Sie ist offen für die leiblich-seelische Betroffenheit, für die mögliche Stellvertretung des Physischen und Psychischen und sieht den Kranken als Subjekt und Objekt, das sich selbst zugleich Subjekt und Objekt ist. „Umgangslehre“ kennzeichnet AM als Handlungswissenschaft, die der „Doppelstruktur sachlicher und personaler Entsprechung von Mensch in Not und Mensch als Helfer bzw. Krankheit und Medizin“ (...) folgt. Sie unterscheidet Krankheit und Kranksein sowie klinische und (natur-)wissenschaftliche Objektivität. Lebensweltliche und psychosoziale Faktoren beeinflussen das Kranksein. Als Umgangslehre setzt anthropologisch-klinische Wissenschaft „an die Stelle der Objektivitätslehre der Erkenntnis eine personalistische […] Erkenntnislehre“, die auch ihre methodischen, handlungslogischen Sach- und Wertbegründungen reflektiert. Brücken zwischen AM und dem gegenwärtigen Ethikdiskurs werden skizziert. (shrink)

Article Ein Seismograph der Disziplin Interkulturelle Kommunikation. Rezension von: Anne Schreiter, Deutsch- Chinesische Arbeitswelten: Einblicke in den interkulturellen Unternehmensalltag in Deutschland und China was published on March 1, 2016 in the journal Zeitschrift für Kultur- und Kollektivwissenschaft (volume 2, issue 1).

This proceedings volume contains a selection of revised and extended papers presented at the Second International Workshop on Nonmonotonic and InductiveLogic, NIL '91, which took place at Reinhardsbrunn Castle, December 2-6, 1991. The volume opens with an extended version of a tutorial on nonmonotonic logic by G. Brewka, J. Dix, and K. Konolige. Fifteen selected papers follow, on a variety of topics. The majority of papers belong either to the area of nonmonotonic reasoning or to the field of inductive inference, (...) but some papers integrate research from both areas. The first workshop in this series was held at the University of Karlsruhe in December 1990 and its proceedings were published as Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence Volume 543. The series of workshops was made possible by financial support from Volkswagen Stiftung, Hannover. This workshop was also supported by IBM Deutschland GmbH and Siemens AG. (shrink)

This paper tests the ethics-is-good-for-profits as well as the ethics-and-profits-are-joint-outcomes-of-good-management hypotheses in the context of the U.S. defense industry in the 1988–1992 period. Both ethical behaviors (defined and measured as the number and dollar cost of convictions for violations of civil and criminal law as well as reimbursement obligations arising under environmental statutes) and espoused ethical values (in the form of membership in the Defense Industry Initiative and average level of PAC contributions) are compared with measures of profitability for the (...) defense-oriented business segments of sixty-two major U.S. defense contractors. From 1988 to 1992, the U.S. Defense Department gave these contractors an average of 65% of all prime contract awards over $25,000 to business firms for work in the U.S.We found statistically significant, positive correlations between (1) our two measures of espoused ethical values and (2) both measures of espoused ethical values and violative ethical acts. In other words, those contractors with worse ethics records were more likely to be members of the Defense Industry Initiative and give larger PAC contributions. However, we were unable to reject the null hypothesis of no correlation between either ethical behavior or espoused ethical values and profits. The public policy implications of these findings are discussed. (shrink)

Our think tank tasked by the Dutch Health Council, consisting of Radboud University Nijmegen Honours Academy students with various backgrounds, investigated the implications of Deep Brain Stimulation for psychiatric patients. During this investigation, a number of methodological, ethical and societal difficulties were identified. We consider these difficulties to be a reflection of a still fragmented field of research that can be overcome with improved organization and communication. To this effect, we suggest that it would be useful to found a centralized (...) DBS organization. Such an organization makes it possible to 1) set up and maintain a repository, 2) facilitate DBS studies with a larger sample size, 3) improve communication amongst researchers, clinicians and ethical committees, and 4) improve communication between DBS experts and the public at large. (shrink)

An ideal vision model accounts for behavior and neurophysiology in both naturalistic conditions and designed lab experiments. Unlike psychological theories, artificial neural networks (ANNs) actually perform visual tasks and generate testable predictions for arbitrary inputs. These advantages enable ANNs to engage the entire spectrum of the evidence. Failures of particular models drive progress in a vibrant ANN research program of human vision.

Language’s intentional nature has been highlighted as a crucial feature distinguishing it from other communication systems. Specifically, language is often thought to depend on highly structured intentional action and mutual mindreading by a communicator and recipient. Whilst similar abilities in animals can shed light on the evolution of intentionality, they remain challenging to detect unambiguously. We revisit animal intentional communication and suggest that progress in identifying analogous capacities has been complicated by (i) the assumption that intentional (that is, voluntary) production (...) of communicative acts requires mental-state attribution, and (ii) variation in approaches investigating communication across sensory modalities. To move forward, we argue that a framework fusing research across modalities and species is required. We structure intentional communication into a series of requirements, each of which can be operationalised, investigated empirically, and must be met for purposive, intentionally communicative acts to be demonstrated. Our unified approach helps elucidate the distribution of animal intentional communication and subsequently serves to clarify what is meant by attributions of intentional communication in animals and humans. (shrink)

Friedrich Nietzsche, den Gottfried Benn als das "grosste Ausstrahlungsphanomen der Geistesgeschichte" bezeichnete, steht im Zentrum dieses Buches. Es enthalt die Vortrage der Ringvorlesung, welche die Freiburger Forschungsstelle "Nietzsche-Kommentar" zum 100. Geburtstag der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften organisierte. - In der konstruktiven Auseinandersetzung mit Nietzsche beleuchten die Aufsatze Nietzsches Bedeutung als Leitfigur moderner Lebensphilosophie, Kulturdiagnose und Anthropologie. Nietzsches Kritik an der philosophischen Tradition, sein Konzept der Umwertung, seine Psychologie, sein Geschichtsdenken, seine Beziehung zu Darwin, Schopenhauer, Wagner und Heidegger, seine Lyrik sowie (...) die Charakteristika seines Stils gehoren zum breitgefacherten Themenspektrum.Der Band enthalt Beitrage von Dieter Borchmeyer, Gunter Figal, Hans-Martin Gauger, Volker Gerhardt, Katharina Gratz, Lore Huhn, Helmuth Kiesel, Ludger Lutkehaus, Klaus Monig, Barbara Neymeyr, Annemarie Pieper, Jochen Schmidt und Andreas Urs Sommer. (shrink)

P-compatible identities are built up from terms with a special structure. We investigate a variety defined by a set ofP-compatible hybrid identities and answer the question whether a variety defined by a set ofP-compatible hyperidentities can be solid.

Empirische Wissenschaft und Philosophie, von T. Litt.--Die Erscheinung der lebendigen Gestalten im Lichtfelde, von A. Portmann.--Der Geschmack, von F. J. J. Buytendijk.--Natur und Humanität des Menschen, von K. Löwith.--Die Vernunft und die Mächte des Irrationalen, von O. F. Bollnow.--Existenz und System bei Sören Kierkegaard, von W. Schulz.--Kants Zum ewigen Frieden, von K. Jaspers.--Geschichte und teleologisches System bei Karl Marx, von R. E. Schulz.--Staat und Gewissen im Zeitalter des Säkularismus, von H. Barth.--Über den Konservativismus als historische Kategorie, ein Versuch, von J. (...) Romein.--Soziologie und empirische Forschung, von T. W. Adorno.--Zum Begriff des Menschen heute, von M. Horkheimer.--Die Natur der ästhetischen Wirkung, von J. König.--Bemerkungen zu Theorien des Stils, von B. Snell.--Objektivität, Subjektivität und Erzählkunst: zur Romantheorie Friedrich Spielhagens, von W. Hellmann.--Bibliographie Helmuth Plessner, zusammengestellt von L. Stern (p.[398]-403). (shrink)

I aim to alleviate the pessimism with which some philosophers regard the 'objective attitude', thereby removing a particular obstacle which P.F. Strawson and others have placed in the way of more widespread scepticism about moral responsibility. First, I describe what I consider the objective attitude to be, and then address concerns about this raised by Susan Wolf. Next, I argue that aspects of certain attitudes commonly thought to be opposed to the objective attitude are in fact compatible with it. Finally, (...) I examine the prospects of someone who wishes to adopt the objective attitude permanently. In response to philosophers who claim that this would be psychologically impossible, I argue that our commitment to attitudes that presuppose moral responsibility can soften and fade, often without our noticing it. (shrink)

Oaksford and Chater (1994) proposed to analyse the Wason selection task as an inductive instead of a deductive task. Applying Bayesian statistics, they concluded that the cards that participants tend to select are those with the highest expected information gain. Therefore, their choices seem rational from the perspective of optimal data selection. We tested a central prediction from the theory in three experiments: card selection frequencies should be sensitive to the subjective probability of occurrence for individual cards. In Experiment 1, (...) expected frequencies of the p- and the q-card were manipulated independently by concepts referring to large vs. small sets. Although the manipulation had an effect on card selection frequencies, there was only a weak correlation between the predicted and the observed patterns. In the second experiment, relative frequencies of individual cards were manipulated more directly by explicit frequency information. In addition, participants estimated probabilities for the four logical cases and of the conditional statement itself. The experimental manipulations strongly affected the probability estimates, but were completely unrelated to card selections. This result was replicated in a third experiment. We conclude that our data provide little support for optimal data selection theory. (shrink)

We present a one per cent measurement of the cosmic distance scale from the detections of the baryon acoustic oscillations in the clustering of galaxies from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, which is part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III. Our results come from the Data Release 11 sample, containing nearly one million galaxies and covering approximately 8500 square degrees and the redshift range 0.2 < z < 0.7. We also compare these results with those from the publicly released (...) DR9 and DR10 samples. Assuming a concordance Λ cold dark matter cosmological model, the DR11 sample covers a volume of 13 Gpc3 and is the largest region of the Universe ever surveyed at this density. We measure the correlation function and power spectrum, including density-field reconstruction of the BAO feature. The acoustic features are detected at a significance of over 7σ in both the correlation function and power spectrum. Fitting for the position of the acoustic features measures the distance relative to the sound horizon at the drag epoch, rd, which has a value of rd,fid = 149.28 Mpc in our fiducial cosmology. We find DV = at z = 0.32 and DV = at z = 0.57. At 1.0 per cent, this latter measure is the most precise distance constraint ever obtained from a galaxy survey. Separating the clustering along and transverse to the line of sight yields measurements at z = 0.57 of DA = and H =. Our measurements of the distance scale are in good agreement with previous BAO measurements and with the predictions from cosmic microwave background data for a spatially flat CDM model with a cosmological constant. © 2014 The Author Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. (shrink)

Mit P. Bernays geht S. Körner in der Nachfolge von I. Kant und J.F. Fries davon aus, "daß eine gewisse Art rein-anschaulicher Erkenntnis als Ausgangspunkt der Mathematik genommen werden muß." Andererseits betont Körner einen Wechsel z.B. der geometrischen Anschauung in den nicht-euklidischen Geometrien, der durch die Unabhängigkeitsbeweise für geometrische Axiome möglich wurde. Analog könnte man von einem Wechsel der mengentheoretischen Anschauung in nicht-cantorschen Mengenlehren sprechen, der durch Unabhängigkeitsbeweise mengentheoretischer Axiome eingeleitet wurde. In der Algebra werden Axiomensysteme untersucht, in denen nicht (...) mehr alle anschaulichen Rechengesetze der Zahlen gelten. Für die Analysis lassen sich nonstandard Modelle angeben. Angesichts dieses Pluralismus der Modelle und Axiomensysteme kann man nicht mehr von der einen anschaulichen Mathematik sprechen — wie in den Tagen von Euklid, Piaton, Leibniz und Kant. Es stellt sich daher die Aufgabe einer Erkenntnistheorie der Mathematik, deren Kategorien den modernen Problementwicklungen Rechnung tragen, aber auch ihre anschaulich-konstruktiven Grundlagen aufzeigen. (shrink)

Mit P. Bernays geht S. Körner in der Nachfolge von I. Kant und J.F. Fries davon aus, "daß eine gewisse Art rein-anschaulicher Erkenntnis als Ausgangspunkt der Mathematik genommen werden muß." Andererseits betont Körner einen Wechsel z.B. der geometrischen Anschauung in den nicht-euklidischen Geometrien, der durch die Unabhängigkeitsbeweise für geometrische Axiome (z.B. Parallelenaxiom) möglich wurde. Analog könnte man von einem Wechsel der mengentheoretischen Anschauung in nicht-cantorschen Mengenlehren sprechen, der durch Unabhängigkeitsbeweise mengentheoretischer Axiome (z.B. Auswahlaxiom, Kontinuumshypothese) eingeleitet wurde. In der Algebra werden (...) Axiomensysteme untersucht, in denen nicht mehr alle anschaulichen Rechengesetze der (reellen) Zahlen (z.B. Kommutativgesetz bei Quaternionen, Assoziativgesetz bei Oktaven) gelten. Für die Analysis lassen sich nonstandard Modelle (A. Robinson) angeben. Angesichts dieses Pluralismus der Modelle und Axiomensysteme kann man nicht mehr von der einen anschaulichen Mathematik sprechen — wie in den Tagen von Euklid, Piaton, Leibniz und Kant. Es stellt sich daher die Aufgabe einer Erkenntnistheorie der Mathematik, deren Kategorien den modernen Problementwicklungen Rechnung tragen, aber auch ihre anschaulich-konstruktiven Grundlagen aufzeigen. (shrink)

Mit P. Bernays geht S. Körner in der Nachfolge von I. Kant und J.F. Fries davon aus, "daß eine gewisse Art rein-anschaulicher Erkenntnis als Ausgangspunkt der Mathematik genommen werden muß." Andererseits betont Körner einen Wechsel z.B. der geometrischen Anschauung in den nicht-euklidischen Geometrien, der durch die Unabhängigkeitsbeweise für geometrische Axiome (z.B. Parallelenaxiom) möglich wurde. Analog könnte man von einem Wechsel der mengentheoretischen Anschauung in nicht-cantorschen Mengenlehren sprechen, der durch Unabhängigkeitsbeweise mengentheoretischer Axiome (z.B. Auswahlaxiom, Kontinuumshypothese) eingeleitet wurde. In der Algebra werden (...) Axiomensysteme untersucht, in denen nicht mehr alle anschaulichen Rechengesetze der (reellen) Zahlen (z.B. Kommutativgesetz bei Quaternionen, Assoziativgesetz bei Oktaven) gelten. Für die Analysis lassen sich nonstandard Modelle (A. Robinson) angeben. Angesichts dieses Pluralismus der Modelle und Axiomensysteme kann man nicht mehr von der einen anschaulichen Mathematik sprechen — wie in den Tagen von Euklid, Piaton, Leibniz und Kant. Es stellt sich daher die Aufgabe einer Erkenntnistheorie der Mathematik, deren Kategorien den modernen Problementwicklungen Rechnung tragen, aber auch ihre anschaulich-konstruktiven Grundlagen aufzeigen. (shrink)

Nematodes pervade Earth's biosphere and occupy innumerable ecological niches. The role of Caenorhabditis elegans as a model for developmental processes has encouraged us to cultivate a second nematode, Pristionchus pacificus, as a comparative counterpoint to address questions in development, behavior and ecology in nematode evolution. We hope that this endeavor, now more than a decade underway, will allow us to project findings onto other comparative models for biological processes. To this end, our laboratory has made an extensive genetic map and (...) mutant screens to understand changes in developmental programs. Recently, we have been capitalizing on the whole genome sequence of P. pacificus to describe more thoroughly the molecular basis for these changes, as well as to better integrate our molecular knowledge with the biodiversity of Pristionchus species. BioEssays 28: 651–659, 2006. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)