The volume contains the papers given at a conference held in Basle in Autumn 2006 on the writer Philipp von Zesen (1619-1689). The publication – the first collected volume devoted to this author for 35 years – displays the whole breadth of Zesen's work: Apart from his lyric poetry and novels, the papers discuss his linguistic and poetological innovations together with his contributions to nature philosophy, mythology, historiology and politics.

In everyday morality, "naturalness" is a positively charged term. It plays a significant role wherever technical progress opens up natural processes to human control. This book enquires into the motives for the privileged position of the natural over the artificial and seeks out its roots in the history of ideas.

Topology change is discussed as a barrier penetration process and illustrated by explicit calculations in Witten's Kaluza-Klein bubble geometry. Initial values are given for other bubble geometries, including ones with negative total mass.

In the debate about the moral status of human embryos, it is not always clear which arguments are actually disputed. This book offers students and researchers, but also laypersons interested in the current debate, the opportunity to inform themselves about the current state of discussion and to learn about the most important arguments in a clear and concise form. These arguments are as follows: Since embryos as members of the species homo sapiens sapiens are human beings, they possess dignity (species (...) argument); embryos develop continuously, i.e. without morally relevant incisions, into adult human beings possessing dignity (continuum argument); embryos are identical with adult human beings possessing dignity (identity argument); embryos have the potential to become human beings, and this potential is without restriction worth protecting (potentiality argument). These arguments are each represented by a pro position and a contra position and defended or criticized. In an accompanying contribution by the editors, the four arguments in context are reconstructed, evaluated, and supported by new arguments. (shrink)

Kant is by no means the pure rationalist that Husserl and others represented him as being. To the contrary I claim that Kant is an ethical intuitionist when it comes to our recognition of the validity of the moral law. Interpreting Kant’s famous thesis about the “fact of reason”, I will first argue for three interpretative theses: 1. The factum theory explains our insight into the binding character of the moral law; it is a theory of justification. 2. In our (...) consciousness of the categorical imperative, the moral law is immediately given in its unconditional and binding validity. 3. The unconditional validity of the CI is given in the feeling of respect. Drawing on basic thoughts of Reformed Epistemology, I will then sketch a way to defend Kant’s theory. (shrink)

Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803) gilt weithin als Autor des literarischen Sturm und Drang bzw. der philosophischen und theologischen Spataufklarung. Dass er jedoch auf vielen Gebieten die Klassische Deutsche Philosophie massgeblich beeinflusste, wird eher selten in den Blick genommen. Der Band untersucht dieses sowohl kritische als auch affirmative Rezeptionsverhaltnis Kants, Schellings, Schlegels, Humboldts oder Hegels zu Herder auf den Gebieten der Geschichtsphilosophie, der Metaphysik, der Ethik und Politik sowie der Asthetik und Anthropologie. - Mit Beitragen von Andreas Arndt, Manfred Baum, Christoph (...) Binkelmann, Martin Bondeli, Nigel De Souza, Stefan Greif, Andree Hahmann, Cornelia Klinger, Christian Krijnen, Stephan Nachtsheim, Angelica Nuzzo, Ludger Roth, Gideon Stiening, Violetta Stolz und Gunter Zoller. (shrink)

Der Mathematiker Erhard Weigel (1625-1699) gilt bisher als einer der bedeutendsten deutschen Vertreter der sog. "Fruehaufklärung". Dieser Band hinterfragt nun diesen traditionellen und deshalb allzu bequemen philosophiegeschichtlichen Begriff nach seiner Erklärungsfunktion innerhalb der modernen Wissenschaftsgeschichte. In komparatistischer Sicht auf die deutsche Universitätslandschaft nehmen die Beiträger den institutionellen Rahmen und seine konkreten Auswirkungen auf den Lehrbetrieb in den Blick, um die Bedingungen des damaligen Wissenschaftsverständnisses und seiner Entwicklungsrichtungen zu untersuchen. Im Fokus stehen die Verwandlungen der aristotelischen Basis des Wissenschaftsverständnisses und was (...) sich damalige Universitätslehrer als Autoren explizit (z.B. in Form wissenschaftstheoretischer Schriften und Lehrbuecher) oder implizit (z.B. in Form der von ihnen praktizierten Wissenschaft) unter Wissenschaft vorgestellt und ihrem gelehrten Publikum vermittelt haben. (shrink)

1. Bd. Schellings Begründung von Natur und Geschichte.- 2. Bd. Die Wahrheitsfunktion der Kunst.

Alvin Plantinga s Warranted Christian Belief has very quickly become one of the most influential books in philosophy of religion. In this collection of essays, German philosophers, theologians and a mathematician deal critically with several aspects of Plantinga s seminal work. In a long essay, Plantinga answers these critics.".

In the first person singular of the athematic middle optative in the R̥ gveda, there is strong metrical evidence that the poets knew and used forms in *-iy-a along- side the morphologically regular forms in -īy-a. I argue that the forms in *-iy-a are older and developed from PIE *-ih1-h2e by regular sound change, whereas the younger ones in -īy-a result from morphological regularization. The phonological development of *-ih1-h2e > *-iy-a provides further evidence for the historical phonology of “laryngeals” and (...) geminate consonants in the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European. (shrink)

Die meisten Sozial- und Geisteswissenschaften kennzeichnen sich durch das Bemühen darum, die Welt mit klaren Kategorien zu erkennen. Diesem unterliegt die Vorstellung der linearen Grenze. Unter Rückgriff auf Befunde aus dem nordafrikanischen und europäischen Mittelmeerraum kontextualisiert der vorliegende Artikel mit ethnologischem Blick das Gedankenmodell der Linearität historisch, politisch und kulturell, indem er dieses mit Grenzen als Zonen des Überganges kontrastiert und nach dem epistemologischen Gewinn fragt, der sich daraus für die Disziplinen entfaltet.

Christliche Ethik in der technischen Welt.--Kybernetik und christliches Ethos.--Christliche Anthropologie und biologische Zukunft des Menschen.--Die Stadt als Ort der Utopie.--Christliche Zukunftshoffnung und rationale Zukunftsplanung.--Verantwortung für die Folgen der Freiheit, theologische Überlegungen zum Thema Umweltschutz.

Buddhist traditions are heir to some of the most creative thinkers in world history. The Lives of the Masters series offers lively and reliable introductions to the lives, works, and legacies of key Buddhist teachers, philosophers, contemplatives, and writers. Each volume in the Lives series tells the story of an innovator who embodied the ideals of Buddhism, crafted a dynamic living tradition during his or her lifetime, and bequeathed a vibrant legacy of knowledge and practice to future generations.

With the current changes driven by the expansion of the World Wide Web, this book uses a different approach from other books on the market: it applies ontologies to electronically available information to improve the quality of knowledge management in large and distributed organizations. Ontologies are formal theories supporting knowledge sharing and reuse. They can be used to explicitly represent semantics of semi-structured information. These enable sophisticated automatic support for acquiring, maintaining and accessing information. Methodology and tools are developed for (...) intelligent access to large volumes of semi-structured and textual information sources in intra- and extra-, and internet-based environments to employ the full power of ontologies in supporting knowledge management from the information client perspective and the information provider. The aim of the book is to support efficient and effective knowledge management and focuses on weakly-structured online information sources. It is aimed primarily at researchers in the area of knowledge management and information retrieval and will also be a useful reference for students in computer science at the postgraduate level and for business managers who are aiming to increase the corporations' information infrastructure. The Semantic Web is a very important initiative affecting the future of the WWW that is currently generating huge interest. The book covers several highly significant contributions to the semantic web research effort, including a new language for defining ontologies, several novel software tools and a coherent methodology for the application of the tools for business advantage. It also provides 3 case studies which give examples of the real benefits to be derived from the adoption of semantic-web based ontologies in "real world" situations. As such, the book is an excellent mixture of theory, tools and applications in an important area of WWW research. * Provides guidelines for introducing knowledge management concepts and tools into enterprises, to help knowledge providers present their knowledge efficiently and effectively. * Introduces an intelligent search tool that supports users in accessing information and a tool environment for maintenance, conversion and acquisition of information sources. * Discusses three large case studies which will help to develop the technology according to the actual needs of large and or virtual organisations and will provide a testbed for evaluating tools and methods. The book is aimed at people with at least a good understanding of existing WWW technology and some level of technical understanding of the underpinning technologies (XML/RDF). It will be of interest to graduate students, academic and industrial researchers in the field, and the many industrial personnel who are tracking WWW technology developments in order to understand the business implications. It could also be used to support undergraduate courses in the area but is not itself an introductory text. (shrink)