This paper examines the Buddhist’s answer to one of the most famous (and more intuitive) objections against the semantic theory of “exclusion” ( apoha ), namely, the charge of circularity. If the understanding of X is not reached positively, but X is understood via the exclusion of non-X, the Buddhist nominalist is facing a problem of circularity, for the understanding of X would depend on that of non-X, which, in turn, depends on that of X. I distinguish in this paper (...) two strategies aiming at “breaking the circle”: (i) conceding the precedence of a positive understanding of X, from which a negative understanding (i.e., the understanding of “non-X”) is derived by contrast, and (ii) denying any precedence by proposing a simultaneous understanding of both X and non-X. I consider how these two options are articulated respectively by Dharmakīrti in his Pramāṇavārttika cum Svavṛtti and by one of his Tibetan interpreters, Sa skya Paṇḍita, and examine the requirements for their workability. I suggest that Sa skya Paṇḍita’s motivation to opt for an alternative solution has to do with his criticism of notions shared by his Tibetan predecessors, an outline of which is given in Appendix 1. In Appendix 2, I present the surprising use of the charge of circularity by an early Tibetan logician against his coreligionists. (shrink)

The proposition that the existence of God is demonstrable by rational argument is doubted by nearly all philosophical opinion today and is thought by most Christian theologians to be incompatible with Christian faith. This book argues that, on the contrary, there are reasons of faith why in principle the existence of God should be thought rationally demonstrable and that it is worthwhile revisiting the theology of Thomas Aquinas to see why this is so. The book further suggests that philosophical objections (...) to proofs of God's existence rely upon an attenuated and impoverished conception of reason which theologians of all monotheistic traditions might wish to reject. Denys Turner proposes that on a broader and deeper conception of it, human rationality is open to the 'sacramental shape' of creation as such and in its exercise of rational proof of God it in some way participates in that sacramentality of all things. (shrink)

Satisfaits que la connaissance soit un aller vers l'objet, les hommes se détournent au moment d'en déduire le retour. Croyant connaître, ils ne font que désirer leur propre échec. D'où vient qu'ils s'arrogent ainsi la mesure de l'abstrait selon des conditions finies? Comment cesser d'entendre "nature" (et, avec lui, tout son cortège : "être", "matière", "substance", "objet"...) dans "physique"? Le stratagème de la raison s'accompagne ipso facto d'une extase, d'une recherche de conditions qui, pour la raison, se situent précisément hors (...) d'elle. Tenir toutes les mesures dans l'effacement même du principe : ce n'est pas là simple jeu abstrait, mais discipline qui voue à l'inhumain. Reconduire les proportions vers le foyer d'une possibilité qui tranche : ce n'est pas là dessaisissement par la pensée de sa tâche propre, mais reprise terrible de ce qui, en elle, est davantage qu'elle. Qu'avons-nous à craindre? Qu'est-ce qui nous retient? Si les hommes ne peuvent vivre sans "les choses", le physicien doit du moins indiquer ce en quoi les choses s'évanouissent. Si la science est une tekhnè, la physique a, par et en elle-même, renoncé d'emblée à toute quête de salut. Non par désespoir, mais parce que la lucidité seule est joie. Le physicien est généreux car il reconnaît en son interrogation quelque chose de plus précieux que lui-même : voilà qui devrait inexorablement l'éloigner des hommes. Personne ne sera sauvé. S'il faut la vérité, elle se fera au prix de nous. Alexandre Lissner. (shrink)

Human suicide presents a fundamental problem for the scientific analysis of behavior. This problem has been neither appreciated nor confronted by research and theory. Almost all other behavior exhibited by humans and nonhumans can be viewed as supporting the behaving organism's biological fitness and advancing the welfare of its genes. Yet suicide acts against these ends, and does so more directly and unequivocally than any other form of maladaptive behavior. Four heuristic models are presented here to account for suicide in (...) an evolutionary and sociobiological framework. The first model attributes suicide to the extraordinary development of learning and cultural evolution in the human species. Learning may make human behavior so independent of biological constraints that it can occasionally assume a form entirely contrary to the principles of biological evolution. The second model attributes suicide to a breakdown of adaptive mechanisms in extremely stressful novel environments. The third model involves kin and group selection, arguing that in limited circumstances suicide may occur because of beneficial effects it has on other, surviving individuals who share the suicidal individual's genes. The last model suggests that suicide should be tolerated by evolution when it has no effect on the gene pool. This model holds particular promise in accounting for aspects of suicide not attributable to culture. The evidence indicates that suicide is most common in individuals who are unlikely to reproduce and unable to engage in productive activity; such individuals are least capable of promoting their genes. A complete explanation of suicide may derive only from an analysis of its biological significance. (shrink)

In their recent paper, Natalie Banner and Tim Thornton evaluate seven volumes of the Oxford University Press series “International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry,” an international book series begun in 2003 focusing on the emerging interdisciplinary field at the interface of philosophy and psychiatry. According to Natalie Banner and Tim Thornton, the series represents a clear indication that the interdisciplinary field of philosophy of psychiatry has been flourishing lately. Philosophers and psychiatrists face a “new philosophy of psychiatry”. However, the optimism (...) which the “new” philosophy of psychiatry celebrates is precisely the exiling of philosophy from the foundations of psychiatry. The 150 year old belief that psychopathology cannot do without philosophical reflection has virtually disappeared from common psychiatric education and daily clinical practice. Though the discipline of psychiatry is particularly suited to contributions from philosophy, the impact of philosophy on psychiatry nowadays remains limited. With some exceptions, philosophical papers are embedded in a philosophical context inscrutable to ordinary psychiatrists. Much current philosophical work is perceived by psychiatrists as negativistic. I would encourage the field of psychiatry to incorporate once again basic philosophical attitudes which render possible true dialogue with philosophy and enrich both disciplines. The views developed here should not discredit the value and importance of Natalie Banner and Tim Thornton’s paper and the excellent series “International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry.” As Jaspers said “Everybody inclined to disregard philosophy will be overwhelmed by philosophy in an unperceived way”. (shrink)

David Rapoport’s Wave theory of terrorism is one of the most oftencited theories in the literature on terrorist violence. Rapoport is praised for having provided researchers with a universal instrument which allows them to explain the origin and transformation of various historical types of terrorism by applying to them the concept of global waves of terrorist violence driven by universal political impulses. This article, testing the Wave theory against the recent phenomenon of homegrown jihadism in Europe, uncovers this theory’s fundamental (...) weaknesses and questions its real academic and practical value. (shrink)

The study of the Hegelian understanding of religious consciousness has never been carried out in the domestic philosophy, although this topic is extremely important, as the philosopher shows the gradual formation of religious consciousness as a special gestalt of self-knowledge of a spirit that is different from other forms of consciousness, and therefore has its own, inherent only to him, specifics.

Since the 1970s, scholars have begun to pay special attention to the questions of whether democracy guarantees peace, whether freedom should be sacrificed in the name of security during war, how sustainable peace is possible, and what threats war poses to democracy. In the same period, influenced by the legacy of Immanuel Kant and David Hume, the democratic peace hypothesis began to be developed. This article discusses the theoretical debate concerning this hypothesis, as well as the question of whether the (...) type of political regime affects the state's success in war. An examining of the theoretical debates has shown that the proponents of the democratic peace hypothesis have not been able to provide convincing evidence of a direct link between the type of political regime and the willingness to initiate war or maintain peace. At the same time, the debate disproves another common belief, that of the military weakness of democracies. The article notes that the prevalent theoretical approach to studying the issue of war and democracy is based on an eschatological idea of the future democratic world. In contrast to this view, Gunther Anders’ idea of an “apocalypse without a Kingdom” opens up a new perspective for understanding war and democracy, which is that the destruction that war brings is not followed by the construction of a new world. In this case, the main task is not to achieve democracy as a result of war, but to preserve democracy during war. (shrink)

Roger Bastide a été un des rares sociologues français de sa génération à ne pas se reconnaître d’emblée héritier de Durkheim, auquel il reprochait son « sociologisme ». Toute l’œuvre de Bastide peut être caractérisée comme une tentative d’articulation du « fait individuel », du fait social et du fait culturel. L’attention qu’il portait à la subjectivité des individus explique l’intérêt qu’il a très tôt éprouvé pour les travaux des chercheurs de l’École de Chicago, qu’il a découverts en grande partie (...) pendant son long séjour au Brésil et qu’il a été un des premiers à faire connaître en France par ses enseignements et ses publications.Roger Bastide was one of the few French sociologists of his generation who did not declare himself to be heir to Durkheim. On the contrary, he criticized the latter for his « sociologism ». All Bastide’s work can be described as an attempt to connect the « individual fact » with social and cultural facts. The attention he paid to the subjectivity of individuals accounts for his interest, early on, in the work of the Chicago School, which he discovered during a long stay in Brazil. Bastide was one of the first to try, through his teaching and writings, to call the attention of French academics to the work of the Chicago School. (shrink)

Fragments of mummy-cartonnage, formerly in the collection of University College, London, now on permanent loan to the Ashmolean. Parts of two columns of a papyrus-text of a Greek Tragedy: head and foot of both columns partly preserved. The lines of col. ii are not quite straight opposite those of col i. There were eighteen or nineteen lines in col. i, nineteen in col. ii, the last line of col. ii being slightly below the level of the last line of col. (...) i. The text was written in the third century B.C, perhaps before 250 B.C. The hand is similar to that of P. Petrie I Plate V. No Lesezeichen of any kind are visible. [Fragment = 6·9×7·1 cm.: =6·7×10·9 cm.: = 4·2×14·2 cm. Height of column of writing =14·7 cm. Existing margins = 2·5 and 2·3 cm. Probable height of roll = 20/21 cm. . Fr. = col. i, 1–6 + col. ii, beginnings of 2–4: fr. = col. i, 9–18 + col. ii, beginnings of 9–14, 16–19: fr. = col. ii, middle of 1–15.]. (shrink)

The meeting, hosted by McGill University, was held in Montréal, from Friday, October 12, to Sunday, October 14, 1990. Approximately 125 members and friends of the Society attended. The topic of discussion was “Hegel’s Philosophy of Religion.”.

Social responsibility as an awareness of the responsible attitude of the subjects (person, group, community, organization, state, society) to themselves and other subjects of this phenomenon and process is the basis for implementing Sustainable Development Goals. It permeates the entire structure of society both vertically (society – communities – person; state – region – citizen; economy – organization/enterprise (employer) – employee) and horizontally (society – states – economy; communities – regions – organizations/enterprises (employers); person – citizen – employee). The formation (...) of social responsibility is necessary for implementing Sustainable Development Goals and, at the same time, is its basis. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the formation and development of the phenomenon of social responsibility as a basis for the implementation of the goals of sustainable development, encouraging new actors of this phenomenon to act, creating conditions for the public (planetary) association to fight COVID-19; changed approaches to the economy, ecology, social sphere, education, etc. These changes can no longer be reversed, and society can only use them as a basis for further implementation of sustainable development goals. (shrink)

The irregular division of vv. 35 sqq. between two semi-choruses seems to bo widely accepted and approved.2 I wish first to discuss the obvious objection that such an irregular division is unparalleled in a strophic chorus,3 and secondly to show that the reasons advanced for the division are themselves insufficient.

Tetrahymena has been used as a model cell system in many studies of morphogenesis, conjugation, gene mapping, cell division and growth kinetics. In this article, we consider some advances which have resulted from the successful development of a chemically defined medium (CDM), and how subsequent work has extended the contribution that this organism has made to our understanding of different aspects of growth, nutrition, cell cycle control, cytokinesis and intercellular signalling. Finally, we discuss the considerable potential that has arisen for (...) the biotechnological exploitation of this big and rapidly growing eukaryotic cell. (shrink)

La foi des philhellènes dans la légitimité du combat des Grecs contre l’Empire ottoman pour obtenir leur indépendance les a conduits à propager des images très contrastées des femmes grecques. D’un côté, les violences extrêmes (liées en particulier à la mise en esclavage) qui étaient réservées aux grecques suscitaient la compassion et nourrissaient l’indignation contre les Turcs. De l’autre, leurs participations aux combats – décrites comme héroïques – forçaient l’admiration et contribuaient à raviver l’enthousiasme philhellène. Mais ils ont été choqués (...) par le spectacle plus inattendu de la soumission et de l’ignorance dans laquelle ils voyaient les femmes grecques vivre au quotidien. (shrink)

Negative theology or apophasis - the idea that God is best identified in terms of 'absence', 'otherness', 'difference' - has been influential in modern Christian thought, resonating as it does with secular notions of negation developed in continental philosophy. Apophasis also has a strong intellectual history dating back to the early Church Fathers. Silence and the Word both studies the history of apophasis and examines its relationship with contemporary secular philosophy. Leading Christian thinkers explore in their own way the extent (...) to which the concept of the apophatic illumines some of the deepest doctrinal structures of Christian faith, and of Christian self-understanding both in terms of its historical and contemporary situatedness, showing how a dimension of negativity has characterised not only traditional mysticism but most forms of Christian thought over the years. (shrink)

This is a rich, impressive, and important work in philosophical anthropology. It is rich and impressive in view of the wide range of literature upon which the author draws, and the interdisciplinary competencies which he exhibits. It is important because of the central issue which the work focuses on and analyzes from its interdisciplinary perspective.

This article takes up the processual account of drive and its derivations in relation to desire and emotion with an aim to explore the continuity of feeling from internal drive to value in the world. A mental state or act of cognition begins with an impulse and the category of instinctual drive. Drive partitions to desire, which is shaped by value. The combined concept/feeling can remain internal as emotion or distribute into action in vocalization or display. The transition in the (...) mental state from drive through desire is constrained by intrinsic value, which accompanies the object outward as extrinsic value. The partly intrapersonal nature of action prevents feeling from externalizing. Feeling drives concepts to completion. Concepts propelled by feeling undergo specification to images and/or objects. The feeling in the action gives intensity to emotion; the concept in the perception gives the quality of emotion. Feeling empowers concepts to finality, as emotions, ideas, or act/objects. In the animal mind, feeling empowers drive categories. In the human mind, feeling distributes as emotion into a diversity of ideas. Feeling unfelt in lower organisms is felt in a human mind according to the degree of individuation. (shrink)

What should and what should not to be counted as a human right? What does it mean to identify a right as a human right? And what are the most effective and legitimate means of promoting human rights? This book addresses these questions and the complex relationship between the answers to them.

In British constitutional law, the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty maintains that Parliament has unlimited legislative authority. Critics have recently challenged this doctrine, on historical and philosophical grounds. This book describes its historical origins and development.

For many years, biology was largely descriptive (natural history), but with its emergence as a scientific discipline in its own right, a reductionist approach began, which has failed to be matched by adequate understanding of function of cells, organisms and species as whole entities. Every effort was made to explain biological phenomena in physico-chemical terms.It is argued that there is and always has been a clear distinction between life sciences and physical sciences, explicit in the use of the word biology. (...) If this distinction is real, it implies that biological phenomena can never be entirely satisfactorily explained in terms of extant physicochemical laws. One notable manifestation of this is that living organisms appear to -- actually do -- behave in purposeful ways, and the inanimate universe does not. While this fundamental difference continues to be suppressed, the purposiveness (or teleology) which pervades biology remains anathema to almost all scientists (including most biologists) even to the present day. We argue here that it can, however, become a perfectly tenable position when the Theory of Natural Selection is accepted as the main foundation, the essential tenet, of biology that distinguishes it from the realm of physical sciences. In accepting this position, it remains quite legitimate to expect that in many but not all circumstances, extant physical laws (and presumably others still to be discovered) are in no way breached by biological systems, which cannot be otherwise since all organisms are composed of physical material. (shrink)

Zusammenfassung Die Corona-Pandemie führt seit 2020 zu weitreichenden gesellschaftlichen Veränderungen, die u. a. in einer Abnahme der Sportvereinsmitglieder insgesamt sowie in einem verstärkten Einsamkeitsgefühl bestehen. Konträr zu diesen allgemeinen Entwicklungen ist in der Alterskohorte der über 60-Jährigen eine konstante Anzahl an Vereinsmitgliedern zu beobachten. Mit Hilfe von narrativen Interviews in einer Seniorengesundheitssportgruppe in Jena (n=5, Durchschnittsalter 75) und der qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse nach Mayring galt es herauszufinden, welche Faktoren eine Teilnahme an Sportkursen während der Corona-Pandemie positiv beeinflussen. In dieser Zeit von (...) Oktober bis November 2021 mit entsprechenden pandemieeindämmenden Maßnahmen wie Kontaktbeschränkungen stellte das Stattfinden dieses Senioren-Gesundheitssportprogramms in Präsenz bereits eine Besonderheit dar. Die Interviewpartner wurden deshalb explizit nach den Faktoren für eine Teilnahme an diesem Kurs befragt. Neben bereits bekannten gesundheitlichen, partizipativen und traditionalen Aspekten sowie verfügbaren zeitlichen Ressourcen kam mit dem fehlenden Lebenssinn ein neuer Aspekt hinzu. Insgesamt wird durch die Teilnahme an diesem Senioren-Gesundheitssportprogramm eine Möglichkeit geschaffen, um die individuelle Lebensqualität positiv zu beeinflussen. Mit dem Abebben des Pandemiegeschehens ergibt sich zukünftig die Frage, inwieweit sich diese Einfluss faktoren verschieben könnten, wenn neben sportlichen ebenfalls wieder private gesellschaftliche Zusammenkünfte möglich sind. (shrink)