Das Phänomen des Amateurkünstlers und Dilettanten zählt zu den bisher kaum beachteten Gegenständen der kunsthistorischen Forschung. Das Werk dieser Schaffenden darf gleichwohl als ein entscheidender Beitrag zur Kunst- und Künstlergeschichte des 18. Jahrhunderts verstanden werden. Unter einem Dilettanten versteht man gemeinhin einen Laien und Stümper, welcher dem Metier, in dem er sich versucht, eher Schaden als Nutzen bringt. Dabei wird ausser Acht gelassen, dass sich künstlerisch begabte Personen vor allem deshalb als Dilettanten bezeichneten, um sich vom professionellen Künstler abzugrenzen. Dilettieren (...) wurde als eine dem Adel vorbehaltene exklusive Form der Kunstausübung verstanden, die sich weder finanziellen Interessen noch dem Geschmack eines grösseren Publikums unterwerfen musste und sich somit kreative Freiräume ermöglichte. (shrink)

This investigation examines several key factors believed to promote human flourishing, specifically: Factor 1: Age, Education, & Healthcare, Factor 2: Labor Force Participation, Factor 3: Crime, Factor 4: Income, Factor 5: Youth Unemployment and Factor 6: Voting Behavior. Data was examined at the county level, and collected from a variety of US government and non-governmental organizations. Our investigation into the conditions necessary to promote human flourishing uses internal migration within the United States as the indicator of “unhappy” communities. The findings (...) reveal that all factors are important in emigration somewhere, but the factors vary for different counties. As a result, attempts to address the ills of society require an appreciation of geography and context. (shrink)

Walter Benjamin's influence on Theodor Adorno centers on the former's early philosophy of language, which drew on manifold sources, including importantly the theological writings of Johann Georg Hamann. Adorno adapts this “expressivist” philosophy of language as part of a critique of Hegel's dialectic that forms the basis for Adorno's understanding of epistemology and social criticism. The result of this tempered influence is that Benjamin's and Adorno's projects share a great deal of common ground and vocabulary, but diverge in fundamental ways. (...) These tensions come to the fore in Adorno's 1930s criticisms of Benjamin's unfinished Arcades Project. Of particular import are their respective understandings of Benjamin's notion of a constellation. For Adorno the constellation is a response to the dialectical tension in the relation between subject and object, while for Benjamin it transcends that relation. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Necessity and Essence Naming and Reference Rules and Meaning Conclusion References.

Can we have a posteriori knowledge of modal facts? And if so, is that knowledge fundamentally a posteriori, or does a priori intuition provide the modal component of what is known? Though the latter view seems more straightforward, there are also reasons for taking the first option seriously.

Metaphors involve immense explanatory power and positive impact predominantly in the scientific education and popularization. Still the use of metaphors in science might be a double-edged sword. Introduction of the computer metaphor to many scientific fields in the last century resulted in reductionist approaches, oversimplifications and mechanistic explanations in science as well as in humanities. In this short commentary we developed further the computer metaphor by prof. Noble and the illusions this metaphor led to in genetics, linguistics and consequently DNA (...) linguistics. (shrink)

For Protosociology the "Diskurs "-theory has a special significance. Validity-dimensions of speech and their evaluation in the procedure of argumentation indicate generalized presuppositions of interactive processes. These validity-dimensions can be reconstructed in lingusitic characterisations of "normative language" (P.W. Taylor). Thus it is possible to make first steps to a theory of validity. Protosociology provides a special reconstruction of argumentative speech on the level "interpersonality, structure of communicative acting and collective identity". The aim of Protosociology within a context of problems of (...) "Diskurs"-theory would have to establish normative values for an evaluation of such validity-dimensions. A logic of "Diskurs" would have to be developed as a kind of logic of "relevance". (shrink)

At first place the article should serve as clarification of the term "lifeworld" ("Lebenswelt) by means of selected lifeworld-conceptions of 20th. century philosophy.I would like to explikate the attempts of reflexive reference to lifeworld which exist in the concept of Husserl, Heidegger, Wittgenstein and Searle. According to the explanations of Husserl and Heidegger my main interest lies in the problematic of validity. The relation between lifeworld and reflection shall be dealt with in the light of the philosophy of language (Wittgenstein, (...) Searle).At least I would like to discuss the relation between tifeword and science. (shrink)

Originally the constitution was expected to express and channel popular sovereignty. It was the work of freedom, springing from and facilitating collective self-determination. After the Second World War this perspective changed: the modern constitution owes its authority not only to collective authorship, it also must commit itself credibly to human rights. Thus people recede into the background, and the national constitution becomes embedded into one or other system of 'peer review' among nations.This is what Alexander Somek argues is the (...) creation of the cosmopolitan constitution. Reconstructing what he considers to be the three stages in the development of constitutionalism, he argues that the cosmopolitan constitution is not a blueprint for the constitution beyond the nation state, let alone a constitution of the international community; rather, it stands for constitutional law reaching out beyond its national bounds. This cosmopolitan constitution has two faces: the first, political, face reflects the changed circumstances of constitutional authority. It conceives itself as constrained by international human rights protection, firmly committed to combating discrimination on the grounds of nationality, and to embracing strategies for managing its interaction with other sites of authority, such as the United Nations. The second, administrative, face of the cosmopolitan constitution reveals the demise of political authority, which has been traditionally vested in representative bodies. Political processes yield to various, and often informal, strategies of policy co-ordination so long as there are no reasons to fear that the elementary civil rights might be severely interfered with. It represents constitutional authority for an administered world. (shrink)

Dieser Band versammelt aktuelle Beiträge zur empirischen Subjektivierungsforschung, welche aus methodischer, methodologischer wie theoretischer Perspektive (mit unterschiedlichen Akzentuierungen) normative Ordnungen in Varianten ihrer alltäglichen Reflexion, Interpretation, Aushandlung und Aneignung in den Blick nehmen. Im Fokus der Auseinandersetzungen stehen daher jeweils Möglichkeiten der Rekonstruktion von Normen des Subjekt-Seins und deren Bezug zur Alltagspraxis bzw. zu den diese orientierenden Wissensstrukturen. Trotz diesem gemeinsamen Rahmen greifen die Beiträge unterschiedliche, theoretische Positionen auf, so dass der Band nicht in ein homogenes und geschlossenes Forschungsprogramm einführt, (...) sondern einen Einblick in die Bandbreite subjektivierungsanalytischer Methodologien, Fragestellungen und Methoden geben möchte. Relevante Bezugspunkte der hier versammelten Beiträge sind – neben den Konzepten und Studien Foucaults – etwa die Governmentality Studies, Cultural Studies, Diskurs- und Dispositivtheorie, Biografieforschung, hermeneutische Wissenssoziologie, praxeologische Wissenssoziologie, Habitus-, Performativitäts- und Praxistheorien sowie die Mediatisierungsforschung, welche teils auch in einen Dialog miteinander treten bzw. in Form von Triangulationen genutzt werden, um Subjektivierungsprozesse in verschiedenen Disziplinen und vielfältigen Forschungskontexten zu rekonstruieren. (shrink)

Christianity has understood the environment as a gift to nurture and steward, a book of divine revelation disclosing the divine mind, a wild garden in need of cultivation and betterment, and as a resource for the creation of a new Eden. This Cambridge Companion details how Christianity, one of the world's most important religions, has shaped one of the existential issues of our age, the environment. Engaging with contemporary issues, including gender, traditional knowledge, and enchantment, it brings together the work (...) of international scholars on the subject of Christianity and the Environment from a diversity of fields. Together, their work offers a comprehensive guide to the complex relationship between Christianity and the environment that moves beyond disciplinary boundaries. To do this, the volume explains the key concepts concerning Christianity and the environment, outlines the historical development of this relationship from antiquity to the present, and explores important contemporary issues. (shrink)