This contribution will deal with granting rights to nature. We will define rights of nature as a social process of creating institutions which are linked to philosophical discourses on perceptions of nature. The idea is to use different narratives in order to understand how rights of nature have been and can be accomplished/derived by humans. Then we will give hints for future directions of right detection embedded in eco-systems. We will specifically focus on the right derivation needed for contracting with (...) nature. We take the beaver, the wolf and the black tern as examples and generalize on case specific findings. All of them need habitats and landscapes in which they can live. The message is that landscapes and habitats are part of rights of nature and that they must be also addressed beyond individual species. Additionally, we will use different strains of thought to get hints on a practical establishing of rights of nature. (shrink)

Keine ausführliche Beschreibung für "Der Platonismus und die Gegenwart" verfügbar.

The Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA provided opportunities for women to conduct research in the late 19th and early 20th century at a time when many barriers existed to their pursuit of a scientific career. One woman who benefited from the welcoming environment at the MBL was Mary Jane Hogue. Her remarkable career as an experimental biologist spanned over 55 years. Hogue was born into a Quaker family in 1883 and received her undergraduate degree from Goucher College. She (...) went to Germany to obtain an advanced degree, and her research at the University of Würzburg with Theodor Boveri resulted in her Ph.D.. Although her research interests included experimental embryology, and the use of tissue culture to study a variety of cell types, she is considered foremost a protozoologist. Her extraordinary demonstration of chromidia in the life history of a new species of Flabellula associated with diseased oyster beds is as important as it is ignored. We discuss Hogue’s career path and her science to highlight the importance of an informal network of teachers, research advisors, and other women scientists at the MBL all of whom contributed to her success as a woman scientist. (shrink)

The geometric shapes and natural forms, captured with exceptional precision in Ernst Haeckel's prints, still influence artists and designers to this day. This volume highlights the research and findings of this natural scientist. Powerful modern microscopes have confirmed the accuracy of Haeckel's prints, which even in their day, became world famous. Haeckel's portfolio, first published between 1899 and 1904 in separate installments, is described in the opening essays. The plates illustrate Haeckel's fundamental monistic notion of the "unity of all (...) living things" and the wide variety of forms are executed with utmost delicacy. Incipient microscopic organisms are juxtaposed with highly developed plants and animals. The pages, ordered according to geometric and "constructive" aspects, document the oness of the world in its most diversified forms. This collection of plates was not only well-received by scientists, but by artists and architects as well. Rene Binet, a pioneer of glass and iron constructions, Emile Galle, a renowned Art Nouveau designer, and the photographer Karl Blossfeld all make explicit reference to Haeckel in their work. (shrink)

Nelson Goodman (1906-1998) was one of the outstanding thinkers of the 20th century. In a memorial note, Hilary Putnam considers him to be ""one of the two or three greatest analytic philosophers of the post-World War II period"". Goodman has left his mark in many fields of philosophical investigation: Epistemology, Philosophy of Science, Logic, Metaphysics, the General Theory of Symbols, Philosophy of Languageand Philosophy of Art, all have been challenged and enriched by the problems he has shown up, the projects (...) he developed from them and the solutions he has suggested. In August 2006 a coup. (shrink)

Volume 2, part 1 "herausgegeben von Georg Braungart; begrèundet von Ernst Behler in Zusammenarbeit mit Frank Jolles;" volume 3 "begrèundet von Ernst Behler und Frank Jolles; herausgegeben von Claudia Becker.".

Stem cells did not become a proper research object until the 1960 s. Yet the term and the basic mind-set—namely the conception of single undifferentiated cells, be they embryonic or adult, as the basic units responsible for a directed process of development, differentiation and increasing specialisation—were already in place at the end of the nineteenth century and then transmitted on a non-linear path in the form of tropes and diagrams. Ernst Haeckel and August Weismann played a special role (...) in this story. The first coined the term Stammzelle (stem cell), the second was the author of the first cellular stem-tree diagram. Even today, I shall argue, the understanding of stem cells, especially the popular perception, is to a large extent a Haeckelian–Weismannian one. After having demonstrated this, by analysing the terminology, in this essay I will focus on the use of cytogenetic tree diagrams between 1892 and 1925 and on the tacit understanding of stem cells that they transmit. (shrink)

Ernst Haeckel, vor 100 Jahren am 9. August 1919 in Jena verstorben und im Garten seines Hauses beigesetzt, hat als Wissenschaftler und Person so polarisierend gewirkt wie kaum eine andere Figur des ausgehenden 19. und des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts. Es ist unmöglich, sich der Figur Haeckel zu bemächtigen, ohne sofort inkompatibel auftretende Beschreibungen zu gebrauchen: In seiner zoologischen Forschung war er mit größter Hingabe mit der mikroskopischen Erforschung kleinster Meereslebewesen befasst. Dies betraf insbesondere einzellige Radiolarien, von denen er (...) hunderte neuer Arten erstmals beschrieb und klassifizierte. (shrink)

Ernst Mach stands as a representative figure of the positivist philosophy of science at the turn of the twentieth century, yet he is by far the most misunderstood scientist-philosopher. The misunderstanding is largely caused by his epistemological rejection of the use of hypothetical entities that are ordinarily posited by scientists. He also argued against the mechanistic worldview which dominated scientific investigations in the nineteenth century. This essay will demonstrate that Mach’s positivism differs from the earlier positivism of August (...) Comte. His anti metaphysical stance is deeply-rooted in his physical phenomenology, guided by the economy of thought in pursuit of the unity of science. In Mach’s view, scientific theories are merely biological tools for organizing experience by means of the fewest possible concepts, and all metaphysical elements are to be eliminated from science as methodologically and epistemologically superfluous. But Mach’s thesis of the unification of science does not share the common concern of the logical positivists to reduce various scientific statements to physical language. While Mach’s philosophy of science clearly exhibits a miscalculation of the strength of scientific conceptual tools, his physical phenomenology serves as a bridge between theory and experiment which has proved to be fruitful. Keywords: The economy of thought, evolution, element, physical phenomenology, the unity of science, instrumentalism, emphirical realism. Abstrak: Ernst Mach tampil sebagai tokoh representatif dari Filsafat Ilmu Pengetahuan positivis pada peralihan menuju abad ke-20, sekaligus sebagai ilmuwan-filsuf yang paling disalahpahami. Kesalahpahaman tersebut sebagian besar disebabkan oleh penolakan epitemologisnya terhadap penggunaan wujud-wujud hipotetis yang kerap diajukan oleh para ilmuwan. Ia juga melawan cara pandang mekanistis yang mendominasi penyelidikan ilmiah pada abad ke-19. Artikel ini memperlihatkan bahwa positivisme Mach berbeda dengan positivisme August Comte yang mendahuluinya. Pandangan anti-metafisis Mach berakar sangat dalam pada fisika fenomenologi yang dipandu oleh ekonomi pikiran untuk mencapai sains terpadu. Dalam pandangan Mach, teori-teori ilmiah semata-mata sarana biologis untuk menata pengalaman dengan memanfaatkan sesedikit mungkin konsep, dan semua elemen metafisika perlu disingkirkan dari sains karena secara metodologis dan epistemologis tidak bermanfaat. Namun, tesis Mach tentang sains terpadu tidak sejalan dengan gagasan para positivis logis yang mereduksi berbagai macam pernyataan ilmiah ke dalam bahasa fisika. Sementara Filsafat Ilmu Pengetahuan Mach jelas-jelas keliru dalam memperhitungkan kekuatan piranti-piranti konseptual sains, fisika fenomenologi yang menjembatani teori dan eksperimen telah terbukti sangat bermanfaat. Kata-kata kunci: Ekonomi pikiran, evolusi, elemen, fisika fenomenologi, sains terpadu, instrumentalisme, realisme empiris. (shrink)

Philosophers often rely on sciences of their own time. This is especially true for scientists writing philosophical works. In the case of Ernst Mach, the scientific references are mainly to physics, physiology, evolutionary biology and—in a somewhat different manner—the new discipline of psychology. Like so many authors in the late 19th century, Mach had extreme confidence in the methods of the natural sciences. However, this trait, often called scientism or positivism, can easily be used in polemical accounts that obscure (...) other aspects of Mach’s thought. Mach is well-known for both his analysis of sensations and his evolutionary conception of perception and knowledge. The tension between the ambition to clarify the empirical basis of perception on the one hand and the focus on the natural origins of human perception on the other hand is, however, considerable. A comparison of these two perspectives can contribute to an ontological understanding of experience that sheds new light on the much-discussed topic of sense data and at the same time clarifies the difference between experience and observation and the role of experimental science in this context. In some respects, Mach seems closer to William James than to his followers in the Vienna circle. The accusation of idealism made by Lenin in his influential critique of positivism overlooks the implications of this naturalist approach but offers the occasion to dwell on the ontological implications of something that can be called natural historicity. Comparisons with Aristotle, Bacon, Descartes and Kant situate the empiricist theory of perception. (shrink)

Weismann's ideas on species transmutation were first expressed in his famous debate with Moritz Wagner on the mechanism of speciation. Wagner suggested that the isolation of a colony from its original source is a preliminary and necessary factor for speciation. Weismann accepted a secondary, facilitating role for isolation, but argued that natural and sexual selection are the primary driving forces of species transmutation, and are always necessary and often sufficient causes for its occurrence. The debate with Wagner, which occurred between (...) 1868 and 1872 within the framework of Darwin's discussions of geographical distribution, was Weismann's first public battle over the mechanism of evolution. This paper, which offers the first comprehensive analysis of this debate, extends previous analyses and throws light on the underlying beliefs and motivations of these early evolutionists, focusing mainly on Weismann's views and showing his commitment to what he later called "the all sufficiency of Natural Selection." It led to the crystallization of his ideas on the central and essential role of selection, both natural and sexual, in all processes of evolution, and, already at this early stage in his theoretical thinking, was coupled with sophisticated and nuanced approach to biological organization. The paper also discusses Ernst Mayr's analysis of the debate and highlights aspects of Weismann's views that were overlooked by Mayr and were peripheral to the discussions of other historians of biology. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:378 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY these churches to deal reasonably with frontier conditions and popular prejudices is common knowledge, but it is often forgotten that their founder and guide during the critical days of growth was also an exponent of the late Scottish Enlightenment. To make this careful analysis of Campbell's philosophy, as an extraordinary specimen of empirical method, is a welcome achievement by an experienced empiricist. The volume also (...) contains a Foreword by President Perry E. Gresham of Bethany College, and a comprehensive bibliography of Campbell's writings compiled by Claude E. Spencer. HERBERT W. SCHNEIDER Claremont, Cali]ornia Hegel's First American Followers, The Ohio Hegelians: J. B. Stallo, Peter Kau]mann, Moncure Conway, August WiUich. By Loyd D. Easton. (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1966. Pp. lx + 353. $7.00.) This expansion of the theme outlined in Professor Easton's article of 1962 gives us fulllength accounts of the careers and ideas of four picturesque characters of the Ohio River Valley during the 19th century. The four had little in common except Hegel, and even him they did not really share, for they interpreted him differently and used him for different interests. The author is somewhat generous in calling them "Hegelians" and "followers" of Hegel, for like practically all those Americans who have been influenced by Hegel, they followed him at a safe distance and not very long. But this diversity makes Easton's account all the more fascinating. He portrays not only four characters but also the culture of Cincinati and its environment. J. B. Stallo is better known among American historians and philosophers than the other three, and deservedly so, for he was more philosophical. But he gains in stature here, noteworthy not only for his philosophy of nature but also as a prominent citizen, judge of a Superior Court, and political leader of a large German community. Stallo had two very different careers: the early Catholic student and teacher of Oken's philosophy of nature, mixed liberally with Schelling's similar system and with Hegel's Encyclopedia and his Phenomenology. Emerson was probably right in getting out of Stallo's General Principles an idea of "nature's rhythmic unfolding" rather than an idea of historical dialectic. Then came the later Stallo (after 1855), a convert from Catholicism and transcendentalism to empiricism, and a devoted follower of Ernst Mach. It is this later Stallo, author in 1881 of The Concepts and Theories oJ Modern Physics, who is better known, and who used the term "relativity" to indicate that physics deals not with things-in-themselves but with the data given to observers. Peter Kaufmann is an excellent representative of those pietists who, when they came to the open spaces and free manners of America, made serious attempts to give their religious "perfectionism" a practical social embodiment in utopian, communal economies. He became a teacher in the Rappite "Community of Equality and Social Harmony" and after a few years founded his own "Society of Germans at Teutonia." The members of this society agreed to devote their communal surplus to the education of orphans, the conversion of Indians, the spreading of the Gospel to "the four corners of the earth", and publishing a weekly Herald o] Better Times. After four years of this Society he moved northward to Canton, Ohio, where he settled down comfortably as a publisher and promoter of public education. His major publication, The Temple oJ Truth, incorporated some ideas on dialectic taken from Hegel. He continued his contacts with many utopian communities and urged his fellow citizens to help in making the United States of America "a saviour nation of the rest of mankind." Moncure Conway, a native of Virginia and graduate of Dickinson College, became an itinerant Methodist minister. But in 1853 the Harvard Divinity School made a Unitarian of him and an enthusiast for the higher criticism of Strauss and the transcendentalism of Hegel. In 1858 his wife introduced him to her home town, Cincinnati, and there he became BOOK REVIEWS 379 the minister of a very influential and liberal congregation. In 1860 he began publication in Cincinnati of The Dial, successor to the New England transcendentalist journal, and used its... (shrink)

History and Philosophy of Logic, Volume 33, Issue 3, Page 291-293, August 2012.

Dieser Aufsatz bietet eine Skizze der Umstände, die zu Leibniz' Eintritt in den Dienst am Hannoverschen Hof führten, und untersucht die Gegebenheiten, die er bei seiner Ankunft in Hannover im Jahr 1676 vorfand, insbesondere die soziale Lage und die organisatorischen Einrichtungen, die ftir Leibniz' Stellung am Hof Herzogs Ernst August maßgeblich waren. Ziel der Abhandlung ist, Auskunft zu geben über die berufliche und persönliche Stellung, die Leibniz in den Jahren 1676-1677 am Hannoverschen Hof innehatte.

Excerpt from Kant Contra Haeckel: Fur den Entwicklungsgedanken, Gegen Naturwissenschaftlichen Dogmatismus Meine Schrift wendet sich an die, welche, geblendet von Haeckels beruhmtem Namen und wohlverdientem wissenschaftlichen Ruf, auch in philosophischen Fragen von ihm Auskunft erwarten. Sie mochte den philosophischen Nimbus, der ihn umgibt, zerstoren und so an ihrem Teil der Vernunft zum Durchbruch verhelfen. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical (...) work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. (shrink)

Dollo's law of the non-reversibility of the phyletic development applies to reduced and missing organs as well as to functioning ones which have adapted their shapes to new conditions of living. Such an organ will never again regain its old structure, not even if the old conditions should return. Numerous instances show that this law only applies in general; exceptions prove that it does not apply absolutely, so that it is not really a law, but a rule. The larvae and (...) pupae of Chironomidae live, with relatively few exceptions, in water. Terrestrial species of the Chironomidae are undoubtedly descended from the aquatic. Of the Orthocladiinae-genusPseudosmittia, only species of which the larvae live on the earth were known up to now; the larva of the new speciesPseudosmittia Ruttneri has secondarily reverted to aquatic life. In them a number of their ancestors' adaptations have, it is true, remained intact; two such characteristics, however, have again taken the shape characteristic of aquatic life. So here we have a return to the original phylogenetic stage, as a result of the return of the original conditions of life. The specific pupal organs of the Trichoptera, adaptations to aquatic life, have completely disappeared in the purely terrestrialEnoicyla pusilla, they have partly disappeared in the semi-terrestrial original Trichopterae from the genusBeraea andCrunoecia. So here, too, we have a return to an original phylogenetic condition. In both cases ”réversibilité de l'évolution”.La thèse deDollo de la non-réversibilité de l'évolution phylogénétique se rapporte aussi bien aux organes réduits ou disparus, qu'aux organes en fonction, qui, dans de nouvelles conditions de vie ont changé leur forme; même au retour des anciennes conditions, un tel organe ne pourrait plus jamais obtenir sa structure originale. De nombreux exemples montrent que cette thèse il est vrai, est valable d'une façon générale; qu'elle n'est cependant pas absolue, donc qu'elle n'est point une loi, mais seulement une règle est prouvé par des exceptions. Ici nous montrons deux nouveaux exemples de ces exceptions: Les larves et les nymphes chironomides vivent dans l'eau, sauf des exceptions relativement peu nombreuses. Des espèces terrestres parmi les chironomides dérivent, sans aucun doute, de formes aquatiques. Du genre orthocladiinePseudosmittia, on ne connaissait jusqu'à présent que des espèces de larves vivant dans la terre; la larve de la nouvelle espècePseudosmittia Ruttneri a passé secondairement à la vie aquatique. Là, il est vrai qu'un nombre d'adaptations de forme de ces ancêtres à la vie terrestre se sont maintenues; deux de ces marques cependant, ont recouvré l'empreinte caractéristique de la vie aquatique. Ainsi retour à l'ancien stade phylogénétique quand reviennent les conditions de vie originales. Les organes spécifiques des nymphes des trichoptères, des adaptations à la vie aquatique, ont complètement disparu chezEnoicyla pusilla, qui est uniquement terrestre. Chez les trichoptères de source des genresBeraea etCrunoecia qui sont miterrestres, ils ont disparu en partie. Donc, il y a ici aussi un retour à une ancienne situation phylogénétique. Dans les deux cas: Réversibilité de l'évolution. (shrink)