A brief contribution to the conference held as a homage to O. Marquard focuses on his basic, that is, sceptical stance in philosophy and life. It merely aspires to remark (not necessarily justify) that philosophy can be cultivated in various areas with various basic ingredients, and it can develop thinking in multifarious forms. Marquard’s preferred form was Pyrrhonian scepticism, resulting in irony, which leads to further crossroads and contingencies showing no sign of a blessed state, just like the (...) previous ones. Perhaps this is a result of the fact that crossroads exist, but a blessed state does not. There is no way he can tell; but he can doubt both. (shrink)

English summary: Rochus Leonhardt discusses the relationship between Protestantism and scepticism in a critical analysis of the philosophical approach used by Odo Marquard. He shows that the most important goal of Marquard's philosophy was to establish a pluralism in hermeneutics. In view of this fact, the author questions the extent to which such a pluralism is related to the Protestant emphasis on the Scriptures. German description: Rochus Leonhardt diskutiert das Verhaltnis von Protestantismus und Skeptizismus anhand einer kritischen Analyse (...) des philosophischen Ansatzes von Odo Marquard. Als Pointe des Marquardschen Skeptizismus stellt er die Forderung nach einer pluralisierenden Hermeneutik heraus und konfrontiert diese Forderung mit dem protestantischen Schriftprinzip. Dessen originare Gestalt, Luthers Betonung der uneingeschrankten Schriftautoritat ( sola scriptura ), schliesst zwar einen hermeneutischen Pluralismus kategorisch aus, aber die immer drangendere eKrise des Schriftprinzips' macht die Problematik dieser esingularisierenden Hermeneutik' deutlich. Im Gesprach mit wichtigen Vertretern der zeitgenossischen evangelischen Theologie pladiert der Autor daher fur eine Integration der in der Literaturwissenschaft langst etablierten pluralisierenden Hermeneutik in die Bibelauslegung - und damit fur eine Ubernahme des hermeneutischen Skeptizismus in die Theologie. (shrink)

In diesem Buch wird eine der schillerndsten Figuren der europaischen Geistesgeschichte um 1950 vorgestellt: Wilhelm Szilasi hat als ungarischer Emigrant judischer Abstammung zwischen 1947 und 1962 den Lehrstuhl geleitet, den zuvor Heidegger und Husserl innehatten. Nicht nur die ambivalente Beziehung Heidegger-Szilasi wird in diesem Werk mit philologischer Genauigkeit nachgezeichnet, sondern es werden auch neue Perspektiven zu Personen wie Georg Lukacs, Ludwig Binswanger, Adolf Portmann, Odo Marquard oder Hermann Lubbe eroffnet.

In a renowned essay, Odo Marquard’s set a cornerstone in defining anthropology from a history of concepts point of view. In the light of more recent researches, some of his conclusions are here reconsidered and criticised. The concept of anthropology, as developed by Herder, Kant, Wilhelm von Humboldt, romantic philosophers and physicians, and finally by Hegel and some of his followers, offers no evidence for Marquard’s alleged opposition between anthropology and philosophy of history. On the one side, in (...) Kant’s or Hegel’s work anthropology is not as peripheral as Marquard argued; on the other side, romantic anthropologists developed a deep interest towards historical perspectives. Rather, anthropology was quite often considered as a nonmetaphysical alternative to psychology. These results also suggest a revision as to the role of anthropology on a broader historical scale. (shrink)

Aufsatz von 0. Marquard zur "Diätetik der Sinnerwartung" beschränkt sich auf die Frage nach dem Sinn in Zusammenhang mit dem Problem "Diagnose der Gegenwart". Verfasser versucht die moderne Sinnlosigkeitserfahrung mit dem modernen Anspruchsdenken in den Zusammenhang zu bringen. Er stellt die These: die moderne Sinnlosigkeitserfahrung rührt nicht aus Sinnamangel her, sie entsteht aus einer Übererwartung von Sinn. Heuzutage Sinnanspruch ist übermäßig. Marquard plädiert für eine Einschränkung des unmäßig gewordenen Sinnanspruchs -für eine Diät in Sachen Sinnerwartung. Und- so meint (...) erwas man dabei am meisten lassen muß, ist der direkte Sinnanspruch und Sinnperfektionismus. Marquard stellt die These fest, das die Sinnfrage wird nicht prinzipiellentschieden, sondern wird indirekt und positiv mitentschieden durch die Besorgung der nächsten Dinge: durch die Erledigung des Details (Kleine Lebenspflichten und Lebensgewonheiten). Auf die Frage: wozu ist überhaupt etwas und nicht vielmehr nichtskönnen die Menschen keinen absoluten Sinnbeweis geben, weil unser Leben zu kurz ist. Aber daraus folgt nicht, nach Marquard, die Veneinung des Lebens. Wenn wir bereits leben, haben wir faktisch-zwar nicht prinzipiell-dem Leben durch Leben jeweils schon irgendiwie zugestimmt. Menschen können weder das absoluten Sinnlosigkeitsbeweis noch absoluten Sinnbeweis liefern. Mir haben - unser Leben ist zu kurz - nicht die Zeit das Leben absolut zu führen. Daraus folgt-nach Marquard-daß unseres Leben in unprinzipiellen, zu fälligen, unsensationellen Weise sinnvoll ist. (shrink)

Vers la moitié du XVIII-ème siècle la crise de la théodiocèe de Leibniz provoque le remplacement du Dieu-créateur par ľ homme-createur et depuis c’est l'homme qui sera coupable du mal existent dans le monde. A partir de ce moment-lá l'homme est oblige á se justifier perpetuellement. Il en reśulte l'evasion d l'homme dans le doméne dont il ne se sent pas responsable, par exemple: l'evasion dans la Nature-vierge, dans les voyages, dans la maladie, dans ľ'esthétique.

There are various perspectives from which the meaning of historicism can be understood. Historically, the interpretation of historicism has predominantly been interested in either questions concerning historical methodology, or the relationship between the natural and human sciences, or the normative consequences of historicism. My intention is not to cast doubt upon the legitimacy of these different research approaches, but rather to supplement them by confronting the meaning of historicism from the perspective of a different question. Did historicism in the late (...) 18th and the early 19th centuries formulate a notion of historical chance or of historical contingency, a notion of what is neither necessary nor impossible in history but rather the result of accident and chance? To answer this question, I begin with Reinhart Koselleck's interpretation of historicism presented in two rather short essays, "Der Zufall als Motivationsrest in der Geschichtsschreibung" and "Über die Verfügbarkeit von Geschichte". In the next step of my analysis, I confront Koselleck's interpretation of the historicist sensibility for contingency and chance with Odo Marquard's conceptual distinction between two notions of contingency and chance. This line of argumentation gives rise to a definition of historicism as a theoretical sensibility for the "fatefully accidental" (Marquard). I further support this claim with an analysis of Savigny's legal history, of Schleiermacher's theology and of the "anti-Faustian" (Werner Busch) art of Caspar David Friedrich. Historicism ultimately teaches us that history is never the exact outcome of the intentions of historical actors. Though human beings undeniably act in history, they cannot make history or at least cannot make it as they please. It is in this regard that I find, in my concluding remarks, Hermann Lübbe's description of historicism as a "sermon of human finitude" to be wholly accurate. (shrink)

Chapter Growing up Constructivist: Languages and Thoughtful People What is radical constructivism? It is an unconventional approach to the problems of ...

The compositional semantics of sentences like Only mammals give live birth and The flag flies only if the Queen is home is a tough problem. Evidence is presented to show that only here is modifying an underlying proposition (its ‘prejacent’). After discussing the semantics of only, the question of the proper interpretation of the prejacent is explored. It would be nice if the prejacent could be analyzed as having existential quantificational force. But that is difficult to maintain, since the prejacent (...) structures when encountered on their own are naturally read as having a lawlike flavor, which in many analyses is attributed to the semantics of implicit operators alleged to be present in them. In the end, an analysis is presented which attributes some very particular properties to these operators and thereby succeeds in providing the target sentences with intuitively adequate interpretations. These complex constructions can therefore be used as a probe into the nature of implicit quantification in natural language. (shrink)

Neugier als Wissenschaftsantrieb oder Entlastung von der Unfehlbarkeitspflicht / Odo Marquard -- Forschung, ein Spiel? / Hansjürgen Staudinger -- Normenfragen der Wissenschaftstheorie / Elisabeth Ströker -- Der Mensch als "Zweck an sich selbst" / Gerold Prauss -- Warum wir heute eine Ethik der Selbstbeschränkung brauchen / Hans Jonas -- Zum Verantwortungsproblem in Wissenschaft und Technik / Hans Lenk -- Der wissenschaftliche Tierversuch / Otfried Höffe.

Die hier vorgelegte Arbeit ist im Wintersemester 1964/65 von der Philosophi­ schen Fakultät der Universität Münster unter dem Titel,Die wahre Freiheit; Fichtes Staatsphilosophie als Theorie der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft' als Dissertation ange­ nommen worden. Sie ist im Kreise des Collegium Philosophicum in Münster ent­ standen. Das Collegium Philosophicum ist die Schöpfung von Herrn Professor Dr. J. Ritter; ihm als akademischen Lehrer gilt der herzliche Dank des Schülers. Für wirksame Hilfe und Förderung danke ich außerdem Herrn Professor Dr. H. Schelsky, Herrn Professor (...) Dr. E. W. Böckenförde, meiner Frau, Herrn Professor Dr. 0. Marquard, der Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes und dem Westdeutschen Verlag. Münster, im Herbst 1966 Bernard Willms INHALT Einleitung........................................................ 1 I. Fichte und die Französisc:he Revolution.................... 15........ 1. a) Die »Zufälligen Gedanken« und die »Aphorismen über Religion und Deismus«................................. 15............... b) Die »Revolution im Kopfe«. Die »Zurückforderung der Denk­ freiheit« als revolutionäre Agitation................... 18....... c) Der »Beitrag zur Berichtigung der Urteile des Publikums über die Französische Revolution«........................ 21........... d) Die politisc:he Konkretheit der Revolutionsschriften in der Wendung zum konkreten Gegner.......................... 26........... 2. Gesellschaft und Staat beim frühen Fic:hte................. 31....... a) Die autonome Gesellschaft........................ 33.......... b) Der bekämpfte wirkliche Staat und die deduzierte Vernunftsta- lichkeit.................................. 37................ 3. Das Verhältnis von Freiheit und Gleic:hheit....................... 42 4. Die Utopie und ihre systematische Bedeutung............... 48...... 5. Der revolutionäre Vernunftbegriff..................... 50......... 6. Von den Revolutionsschriften zum System der Freiheit; die Problematik des revolutionären Ansatzes........................ 56.......... II. Revolution und Wissenschaftslehre. Das System der Freiheit........ 58.. (shrink)

Dieses Buch stellt sich die Aufgabe, Wege und Umwege nachzuzeichnen, die die philosophia practica universalis - Ethik, Politik, Okonomik - seit ihren Anfangen bis in unsere Tage zuruckgelegt hat. Dieses Programm setzt eine Kontinuitat voraus, die schon allein durch die Massgabe der praktischen Philosophie, namlich tugendhaft und gut zu leben, hinreichend gesichert ist. Gleichwohl sind Spannungen und Bruche zwischen Theorie und Lebenspraxis unumganglich, sofern praktische Philosophie, wenn sie glaubhaft sein will, ihre Argumente stets anlassbezogen im Blick auf sich andernde aussere (...) Umstande vortragen muss. So verkurzten die Stoiker in Abkehr von Platon und Aristoteles die praktische Philosophie notgedrungen auf die Ethik, weil ihr Spielraum aufgrund der Machtverhaltnisse eingeschrankt war. Dagegen war die unverkurzte Wiederkehr der praktischen Philosophie mitsamt ihrem methodischen Rustzeug geradezu ein Gebot der Stunde, als in den Tagen der Franzosischen Revolution sowie in den Jahren nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg die Herstellung der Rechtsstaatlichkeit zum essentiellen Thema wurde. Tragende Saulen der philosophischen Begleitung dieses weltgeschichtlichen Geschehens wurden Ethik und Politik und ganz besonders die Okonomik als Ethik mit anderen Mitteln. Neben Sokrates, Platon und Aristoteles bezieht sich Armin Muller vor allem auf die antiken Denker Zenon, Chrysipp und Cicero sowie auf Hobbes, Kant, Hegel, Joachim Ritter, Gunther Bien, Hermann Lubbe und Odo Marquard. (shrink)

Humanism, modernity, and scientific rationality are examined critically in these collected essays.

ZusammenfassungDer Text versucht in Auseinandersetzung mit den Ansätzen von Jürgen Moltmann, Johann Baptist Metz und Odo Marquard und im Anschluss an lutherische Theologie zu einer Verhältnisbestimmung von Theodizeefrage und Kreuzestheologie zu gelangen. Dabei wird Luthers Einsicht fruchtbar gemacht, dass Gott verborgen im Leiden wirkt, das Leiden aber nicht zu seiner Wesenseigenschaft wird. Vielmehr eröffnet sich in der Klage des leidenden Menschen die Möglichkeit, das Leiden an Gott zu beenden und gegen Gott zu Gott zu fliehen. Von Luthers Kreuzestheologie her (...) ist eine gegenseitige Durchdringung von Theodizeefrage, Hamartiologie, Kreuzestheologie und Eschatologie anzumahnen. Gleichzeitig verhelfen Klage und Anklage dazu, sich aufgrund von erfahrenen Leiden nicht in sich selbst zu verschließen, sondern kontrafaktisch an Gott festzuhalten.SummaryDiscussing the thoughts of J. Moltmann, J. B. Metz and O. Marquard the essay attempts – whilst following Martin Luther's theologia crucis – to find a relation between the theodicy-question and the theology of the cross. For this concern it refers to the aspect that God acts in suffering in a hidden way but does not posses suffering as an intrinsic characteristic. Rather, the lament of suffering people address to God, as we find it in the Psalms, gives the opportunity of bringing suffering from God's hiddenness to an end and to “flee from God to God”. Returning to Luther's theologia crucis should lead to further reflections on theodicy, sin, theology of the cross and eschatology. At the same time, lamentation as bringing human suffering before God provides an aid for suffering people not to lock their suffering in themselves, but to maintain the relationship to God – even against the supposedly factual evidence of the experience of suffering. (shrink)

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

In the following, I will discuss the current social reaction to the ecological crisis and the ways in which society reacts to technological risks, which can be understood primarily as a reaction to scientific and moral or ethical uncertainty. In the first section, I will clarify what is meant by scientific and moral or ethical uncertainty. In the second section, I will contrast Max Weber's differentiation of science, law [Recht) and morality in the modern world with the process of de-differentiation (...) of these value spheres, a trend which can be observed in the present-day context of the ecological crisis and technological risks. We shall see that social contradictions emerge in the functional relationships between these value spheres, and that such contradictions go hand in hand with these value spheres or contexts of discourse either losing their original function or becoming transformed. Science forfeits its role as a functional authority and becomes a strategic resource for politics. Law becomes a basic constituent of an amoral form of negotiation, which can no longer be properly grasped in terms of legal categories. Morality is transformed into fear, and economics yields unprofitable practices. In the third section, I will in attempt to open up the moral and ethical dimension of how to deal with uncertainty with the help of discourse theory, as well as outline a possible solution. (shrink)

This book introduces major philosophical theories and issues in the context of the contemporary debate about the so-called culture wars in American society. It is designed to make these theories come alive as they are related to these vital contemporary concerns and to provide a framework within which to assess the ongoing debate about the future direction of Western culture. As a book in ethical theory, it is designed to provide the framework for clear and comprehensive thinking about our cultural (...) development. Classical ethical positions like cultural relativism, emotivism, egoism, hedonism, utilitarianism and theorists like Kant are introduced and assessed. The contemporary theorists John Rawls and Alasdair MacIntyre are given extensive treatment and made accessible to the introductory student in philosophy. Culture War and Ethical Theory exhibits a non-ptolemical tone as it relates these theories, for heuristic purposes, to the contrasting perspective of fundamentalism and secular humanism. These two viewpoints are treated fairly without pretense of thorough exposition. They were chosen because they set the contemporary debate in stark relief. Thus, they assist the reader in understanding the relationship of philosophical reflection to commonly held perspectives. (shrink)

Now you can learn from the original, most important source for magic in the Western world that has ever been published, when you get Agrippa'sThree Books of Occult Philosophy. This massive volume was originally published in 1531, and occultists have been drawing on it ever since. Now, Llewellyn is proud to produce the first complete reprint of the original English translation in the last 500 years. Donald Tyson edited this work and removed the hundreds of errors that appeared in the (...) original translation. He also fully annotated the work, to make it understandableand usableby people today. ·Discover what the Renaissance scholar knew about astrology, medicine, history, herbs, geography, animals, angels, devils, Witches, charms, the weather, and a host of other subjects ·Gain immediate reference to a vast amount of arcane, but completely annotated, magical material ·Find corrected drawings of seals, sigils, and magic squares, and correctly represented geomantic figures ·Explore the practical Kabbalah, geomancy, the magic squares, the elements, the humors, and the Soul of the World ·Consult the new Biographical dictionary for background on each of the hundreds of writers and historical figures referred to by Agrippa ·Consult the new Geographical Dictionary for data on referenced rivers, mountains, nations, citiesmany of which now carry different names. The Three Books of Occult Philosophy is the most complete repository of pagan and Neoplatonic magic ever compiled. This book is packed with material you will not find elsewhere, including copious extracts on magic from obscure or lost works by Pythagoras, Ptolemy, Plato, Aristotle, and many others. Tyson's detailed annotations clarify difficult references and provide origins of quotations, even expanding upon them in many cases, in order to make Agrippa's work more accessible to the modern reader. The Three Books of Occult Philosophy is the ultimate "how-to" for magical workings. It describes how to work all manner of divinations and natural and ceremonial magic in such clear and useful detail that it is stillthe guide for modern techniques. The extensive new supplementary material makes this wisdom practical for use today. The Three Books of Occult Philosophy is an essential reference tool for all students of the occult. Get your copy today. (shrink)

In children experiencing pain, the study of the social context of facial expressions might help to evaluate evolutionary and conditioning hypotheses of behavioural development. Social motivations and influences may be complex, as seen in studies of children having their ears pierced, and in studies of everyday pain in children. A study of opposing predictions of the long-term effects of parental caregiving is suggested.

This is the first English translation of Schelling's Ideas for a Philosophy of Nature (first published in 1797 and revised in 1803), one of the most significant works in the German tradition of philosophy of nature and early nineteenth-century philosophy of science. It stands in opposition to the Newtonian picture of matter as constituted by inert, impenetrable particles, and argues instead for matter as an equilibrium of active forces that engage in dynamic polar opposition to one another. In the revisions (...) of 1803 Schelling incorporated this dialectical view into a neo-Platonic conception of an original unity divided upon itself. The text is of more than simply historical interest: its daring and original vision of nature, philosophy, and empirical science will prove absorbing reading for all philosophers concerned with post-Kantian German idealism, for scholars of German Romanticism, and for historians of science. (shrink)

On the History of Modern Philosophy is a key transitional text in the history of European philosophy. In it, F. W. J. Schelling surveys philosophy from Descartes to German Idealism and shows why the Idealist project is ultimately doomed to failure. The lectures trace the path of philosophy from Descartes through Spinoza, Leibniz, Kant, Fichte, Jacobi, to Hegel and Schelling's own work. The extensive critiques of Hegel prefigure many of the arguments to be found in Feuerbach, Kierkegaard, Marx, Nietzsche, Heidegger, (...) and Derrida. This is the first English translation of On the History of Modern Philosophy. In his introduction Andrew Bowie sets the work in the context of Schelling's career and clarifies its philosophical issues. The translation will be of special interest to philosophers, intellectual historians, literary theorists, and theologians. (shrink)