Erstmals lemte ich die Formale und transzendentale Logik von Edmund HusserI - damals noch in der hervorragenden englischen Ubersetzung von D. Cairns: Formal and transcendental Logic - im Herbstsemester 1977 kennen, als ich als cando phil. an der School of Philosophy der Catholic University of America in Washington, D. C., an einem Hauptseminar daruber bei Herm Prof. Dr. Robert Sokolowski teilnahm. Das an diesem Text, was mich sofort interessierte und seitdem interessiert, ist die Art und Weise, wie HusserI den "natiirIichen (...) Weg von formaler zu transzendentaler Logik zeichnet", indem er die Grundlagen der objektiven, formalen Logik des Urteils auf subjektive, transzendentale Untersuchungen tiber das Ur teilen zu sttitzen versucht. Ich wuBte zwar, daB man schon immer - ins besondere von Descartes bis Wittgenstein - davon geredet hatte, wie wichtig Evidenzfragen fUr die Logik seien, aber es schien mir, daB HusserI der erste war, der in concreto wirklich zeigen konnte, daB und inwiefem eine Theorie des Urteils einer Theorie des Urteilens, also eine Theorie der Logik einer Theorie der Erfahrung, und damit einer der Evidenz bedarf. 1m Hinblick darauf stellt das 1. Kapitel - d. h. die §§ 12-22: "Die formale Logik als apophantische Analytik" - des 1. Abschnittes der Logik den grundlegenden Text tiberhaupt dar, obwohl es nattirlich erst in enger Verbindung mit dem 4. Kapitel-d. h. mit den §§ 82-91: "RtickfUhrung der Evidenzkritik der logischen Prinzipien auf die EvideIlzkritik der Erfahrung" - des II. Abschnittes verstanden werden kann. (shrink)

1735 veröffentlichte Johann Georg Zur Linden in Jena die "Ratio meditationis hermeneuticae imprimis sacrae methodo systematica proposita". Sein Werk ist das Resultat eines unerwarteten Bündnisses zwischen der wolffschen Aufklärung und dem Pietismus nach dem harten Zusammenstoß dieser beiden Richtungen, der seinen Höhepunkt in der Verbannung Wolffs aus Halle fand. In den folgenden Jahren trat eine neue kulturelle Figur in Erscheinung, der Aufklärer-Pietist oder umgekehrt, der die Hoch- und Spätaufklärung beherrschte und zu dessen ersten Repräsentanten Zur Linden zählt. Obgleich die (...) Ratio von den Vorschriften der logischen Hermeneutik ausgeht, beruht sie auf einer Aufwertung der Themen der antiken Rhetorik und konzipiert die Hermeneutik als eine auf die Mittel-Zweck-Rationalität gestützte Technik, der die Aufgabe zukommt, die besten Mittel für das Verstehen von Texten und Reden festzulegen. Die heilige Hermeneutik von Zur Linden zeichnet sich durch wenigstens vier innovative Aspekte aus: 1. Den Vorschlag einer allgemeinen Hermeneutik probabilistischer Art. 2. Eine eingehende Untersuchung der verschiedenen Sinnbegriffe und ihrer Wechselbeziehungen. 3. Die Kritik am Besserverstehen als Auslegungsziel. Die kritischen Punkte des Textes dürfen nicht zugunsten seiner Nichtwidersprüchlichkeit ausgemerzt werden, weil jede Verbesserung leicht in eine Manipulation des Sinns ausarten kann. 4. Die mögliche Nichtübereinstimmung zwischen dem, was der Autor sagen will, und dem, was er tatsächlich sagt. Für Zur Linden hat der Textsinn unzweifelhaft Vorrang und bildet den einzigen möglichen Zugang zum Autorsinn. Seine autorbezogene Texthermeneutik stellt sich noch heute als originelle, beachtenswerte Leistung dar. In 1735 Johann Georg Zur Linden published his "Ratio meditationis hermeneuticae imprimis sacrae methodo systematica proposita" in Jena. His work was the result of an unexpected alliance between the Wolffian Enlightenment and Pietism, after the fierce clash between these two trends which had culminated in Wolff’s banishment from Halle. In the years that followed a new cultural figure appeared, the Enlightener-Pietist, or vice versa, who was to dominate the high and late Enlightenment and of whom Zur Linden was one of the first examples. Although the Ratio takes as its starting-point the rules of logical hermeneutics, it is based in an evaluation of the themes of classical rhetoric, and conceives hermeneutics as a technique, grounded in means-end rationality, the task of which is to determine the best method for understanding texts and speech. Zur Linden’s sacred hermeneutic theory is distinguished by at least four innovative aspects: 1. The proposal of a general hermeneutics of a probabilistic type. 2. An intensive examination of the different concepts of sense and their interrelationships. 3. The critique of better understanding as the goal of exegesis. The critical points of the text should not be obliterated in favour of its consistency. 4. The possible lack of agreement between what the author intends to say and what he actually says. For Zur Linden the sense of the text takes undoubted precedence and constitutes the only possible access to the author’s sense. His author-related textual hermeneutics can still be seen today as an original and noteworthy achievement. (shrink)

In a scholion on Arist. Cael. IV 2.309b29 found in Codex Laurentianus 87.20, the scholiast ascribes to Thales a theory of generation by condensation and rarefaction. This ascription proves to be a construct whose first traces can be found in authors of the early imperial period.

Dealing with and collecting fragments has always been one of the core tasks of scholars of classical antiquity, especially classical philologists. As an examination of the relevant editions and treatises reveals, there is no agreement on what a ‘fragment’ should be. This also has to do with the polysemy of this term, which has gained a new and wider understanding, especially since the Romantic period. In the present contribution it is therefore suggested that the term ‘testimony text’ (‘Zeugnistext’) should be (...) used instead of ‘fragment’. In this way, it is also possible to avoid an editorial pre-determination regarding the authenticity of the testimonies in question. Furthermore, the question of the contextualization of the respective testimony texts will be discussed and suggestions for the practice of their presentation will be made. (shrink)

Des premiers jeux vidéo aux jeux actuels, les interfaces numériques tout autant que les genres de jeux vidéo se sont diversifiés, multipliant les modalités d’identification du joueur et de manipulation des personnages . Intermédiaire entre le monde du joueur et le monde du jeu, l’avatar est devenu un dispositif complexe et hybride : les limites entre le joueur et le personnage tendent à s’atténuer. Afin de mettre en évidence les lignes directrices de cette évolution des avatars dans les jeux vidéo, (...) cette contribution, s’appuie sur un état de la recherche des travaux portant sur l’avatar et l’identification du joueur, et propose une typologie des avatars sous l’angle des moda- lités d’identification du joueur à son personnage : l’avatar-marionnette, l’avatar-masque et l’avatar-mouvement.Since the first video games, digital interfaces as well as video game genres have become greatly diversified, with many different methods for identifying with and manipulating game characters . The avatar, the intermediary between the world of the gamer and the world of the game itself, has become a complex, hybrid figure where the boundaries between player and character are increasingly blurred. To highlight the main trends in the changing figure of the avatar in video games, this paper draws on cur- rent research on avatars and player identification to put for- ward a typology based on different means used by players to identify with their characters: puppet avatars, mask avatars and motion-based avatars. (shrink)

Hermeneutics has a long tradition in the history of philosophy. It carries the task of Hermes to bring God’s message to humans and translate it without betraying it. This special issue of the journal Critical Hermeneutics proposes a double research track: veritative hermeneutics and hermeneutic realism. This double track testifies to the original purpose of hermeneutics to formulate fundamental philosophical questions in light of human historical experience. Opposed to relativism, veritative hermeneutics and hermeneutic realism focus on truth, objectivity, the (...) structure of reality, normativity, and meaning. The issue publishes contributions of this track’s pioneers (Gaspare Mura – veritative hermeneutics, Günter Figal, and Anton Friedrich Koch – hermeneutic realism) as well as authors that explore this track from various perspectives: ethics, personalism, normativity, testimony, Biblical hermeneutics and Jewish thought, religious language, meaning. In this introduction, we will first present the authors working on veritative hermeneutics, then those working on hermeneutic realism.... (shrink)

Descendez avec M. Doyon dans les fondations de Vérité et méthode de Hans-Georg Gadamer, là où se dévoile la présence insoupçonnée de la métaphysique néoplatonicienne. En 'confrontant Gadamer à Heidegger, Platon et Plotin, l'auteur met en lumière l'usage innovant de l'émanation néoplatonicienne pour transcender les limites du subjectivisme moderne et redéfinir l'art comme source authentique de vérité. Découvrez comment Gadamer utilise les notions de lumière et d'émanation pour tisser un lien ontologique entre mots et choses. Ce livre n'est pas (...) seulement un commentaire sur Gadamer, il est un défi au (post)modernisme qui prive l'homme de son rapport réel à la vérité en faisant abstraction de la finitude humaine. Une lecture essentielle pour quiconque s'intéresse à la métaphysique, la philosophie du langage et la critique de la (post)modernité."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

A Kantian beginning : Georg Hermes -- A Catholic Hegel? Anton Günther -- The response of fideism : Louis Bautain -- Magisterial interventions : Gregory XVI and Pius IX -- Return to the schoolmen : Joseph Kleutgen and Leo XIII -- Embodying the Leonine project : Etienne Gilson -- The philosophy of action : Maurice Blondel -- The dispute over apologetics : from Blondel to Balthasar -- A synthetic outcome? John Paul II's letter Fides et ratio -- From (...) Cracow to Regensburg : Benedict XVI. (shrink)

Existe-t-il une chose de tel qu'une conception herméneutique du langage? C'est à cette question que cet ouvrage se propose de répondre, de façon positive, en opérant une mise en dialogue des herméneutiques de Hans-Georg Gadamer et Paul Ricoeur. Malgré les différences indéniables entre les oeuvres de ces deux philosophes, l'auteur montre qu'elles ont en commun de penser le langage comme étant un principe fondamental de notre expérience du monde et de tout événement de compréhension. Une articulation entre les deux (...) oeuvres, qui mise sur une dialectique entre les notions d'appartenance et de distanciation, est possible à partir de cet accord de fond sur notre appartenance essentielle au langage. De ce point de vue, tout effort pour mettre à distance le langage afin d'en faire un objet d'étude doit tenir compte du caractère premier et irréductible de cette appartenance, s'il veut éviter de n'offrir qu'une vision réductrice du langage. Comme le révèlent les analyses de ce livre, les recherches de Gadamer et Ricoeur se caractérisent par la prise en compte de ce fait dans leurs réflexions sur le dialogue, le texte et la traduction, ainsi que dans leurs travaux sur la puissance créatrice du langage qui se manifeste dans la métaphore, le dire poétique et le récit. Cependant, le plus important pour l'herméneutique est que cette appartenance fondamentale ne soit pas synonyme d'un enfermement dans le langage, mais que le langage offre au contraire une ouverture sur l'être et permette à ce qui est de se dire et de se penser. (shrink)

This paper presents the interface of two major representatives of contemporary hermeneutics, Hans-Georg Gadamer and Paul Ricoeur. Without intending to reconstruct the genesis of the theoretical positions in litigation, analyzes different aspects of it pointing to similarities and differences. After a brief introduction (first part), develops, in the second part, of more analytical form, the crossing of the positions of the interlocutors in seven main topics. The third part takes a moment of distancing itself from the hermeneutic tradition of (...) Gadamer, through the critical mediation of Hans Ineichen and Paul Ricoeur. With them we support the necessity of herme-neutics of traditions include the idea of critique and dialogue with the linguistic and analytic philosophy, position which converges in favor of critical hermeneutics of Ricoeur which we intend to highlight it in their specific contribution in rela-tion to the hermeneutic tradition of Gadamer. (shrink)

L'analyse porte sur deux outils rhétoriques de la manipulation du discours politique : la répétition et la métaphore. Nous avons observé comment l'effet sur le récepteur en langue source pouvait être modifié si la priorité n'est pas donnée à la fonction de la traduction. Les concepts de terrorisme et de liberté et la notion de lutte du bien contre le mal peuvent être perçus différemment d'une culture à l'autre. Ces termes et cette vision manichéenne du monde proposée par un président (...) américain qui joue de l'amalgame dans sa guerre contre le terrorisme donnent au traducteur l'occasion de se pencher sur une éthique du traduire.The analysis focuses on two rhetorical tools of manipulation of political discourse: repetition and metaphor. We have seen how the effect on the receptor source language could be amended if the priority is not given to the function of the translation. The concepts of terrorism and freedom and the notion of struggle of good against evil can be perceived differently from one culture to another. These terms and this Manichean world proposed by an American president who plays the amalgam in its war against terrorism give the translator an opportunity to reflect on the ethics of translation. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Dei Filius IV:On Theological Method and the Nexus MysteriorumConor McDonough, O.P.From the point of view of Church history, chapter 4 of Dei Filius might seem like dull terrain. Dei Filius as a whole has been regarded as the "forgotten decree" of the First Vatican Council,1 and the principal controversies during its passage through the Council were, for the most part, proxy battles over papal infallibility.2 Of the whole document, (...) the fourth chapter, on the relationship between faith and reason, provoked the fewest interventions from the Council fathers.3 On April 24, 1870, the day the constitution was passed unanimously by the Council fathers, an American bishop, John McQuaid of Rochester, described Dei Filius in a letter: [End Page 891] "There are some obstruse [sic] metaphysical points which few can fathom and certainly will never trouble the brains of any but a German philosopher for whose especial benefit they seem to have been made. The rest is quite simple theology."4Whether McQuaid regarded chapter 4 as "obstruse" or "simple theology" is anybody's guess, but it is clear that it was indeed composed with German thinkers in mind, especially the rationalists Georg Hermes (1775–1831) and Anton Günther (1783–1863),5 and its composition and passage through the conciliar process was also largely the work of Germanophone theologians: Johann Baptist Franzelin, S.J. (1816–1886), Joseph Kleutgen, S.J. (1811–1893), and Bishop Vincent Gasser (1809–1879).6 It may not have provoked much debate on the floor of the Council, but its careful pronouncements on faith and reason were a vital antidote both to rationalism and fideism. More than that, Dei Filius outlines key points of theological method, making explicit what had long been implicit in the work of theologians. As we shall see, these insights are of enduring relevance to the wise practice of theology.Reason's Work and the Mysteries of FaithWhat is the role of reason in relation to the mysteries of the faith? Or, to put it another way, how does theology proceed? Rationalism and fideism both answer these questions badly. Speaking very broadly, we can say that rationalism, in its more extreme variety, claims that reason can actually construct the whole edifice of faith. God has revealed mysteries of the faith, like his triunity, for example, but reason can—so claim the rationalists—arrive independently at the same mysteries of faith (rendering them, one might add, somewhat less mysterious).Fideism, in its extreme forms, gives hardly any role to reason at all: we receive revelation, and we repeat and transmit it, with little room for reflection and growth in understanding. The light of faith, according to [End Page 892] this view, makes redundant the natural light of reason, at least in the realm of the revealed truths.Dei Filius rules out these two extremes: reason does not independently reconstruct the mysteries of faith, nor does it merely repeat these mysteries. But the constitution does not limit itself to ruling out extremes. In chapter 2 it affirms the capacity of human reason to know God's existence independently of revelation, and in chapter 4 it develops a positive account of the role of reason within faith, enunciating basic principles of sound theological method. Having affirmed in this final chapter a "twofold order of knowledge," accessible by natural reason and faith, respectively, and having affirmed the existence of truths "which, unless they are divinely revealed, are incapable of being known," the constitution outlines the kind of work human reason can carry out on these mysteries:Reason, enlightened by faith, when it seeks persistently, piously, and soberly, does achieve by God's gift some understanding—a most profitable understanding—of the mysteries, both by analogy from what it knows naturally, and by the connection of these mysteries with one another and with the final end of humanity; but reason is never rendered capable of penetrating these mysteries in the way in which it penetrates those truths which form its proper object.7Avoiding any hint of rationalism, Dei Filius indicates here two methods or paths8 by which reason can gain "some understanding" of the mysteries revealed by God... (shrink)

The authors of this volume — all of them recognized representatives of a wide range of academic disciplines — agree that Locke’s work must have had a considerable influence both on English and German literature and the visual arts of Great Britain, especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. From the perspective of interdisciplinarity and intertextuality, the essays presented here deal with Locke as a source of ideas for Archibald Alison, John Constable, Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Oliver Goldsmith, Johann Timotheus (...) Hermes, William Hogarth, Immanuel Kant, Martin Knutzen, Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, George Lillo, Edward Moore, Johann Gottwerth Müller, Joshua Reynolds, Samuel Richardson, John Ruskin, Joseph Spence, Laurence Sterne, J. M. W. Turner and Thomas Whately, among others. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Dei Filius in ContextPatrick Gorevan"On January 3, Vérot, bishop of Savannah, made his debut at the council with a common-sense but long-winded speech, laced with witting or unwitting touches of humor that pleased some but annoyed others. He asked why the council was wasting time in refuting the errors of some obscure German philosophers. It should instead focus on real issues."1This article is an attempt to help understand the (...) First Vatican Council's efforts which resulted in its Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith, Dei Filius, in the face of skepticism by Bishop Augustin Vérot (and others) about the need for the debate and subsequent constitution on faith and reason.The philosophers in question were not particularly obscure: Georg Hermes and Anton Günther were influential figures in the Catholic intellectual world of the mid nineteenth century, while Louis Bautain, and indeed Antonio Rosmini-Serbati, even apart from their influence in Catholic intellectual circles, were inspiring spiritual figures, founders of important and widespread religious orders which flourish to this day. Their "errors" were influential, and represented a broad flank of Christian thinking in the aftermath of the Enlightenment, in many cases demonstrating the truth of Karl Barth's remark that, in those years, "theology... retreated into the narrow regions of epistemology and ethics that Kant left for it."2 [End Page 803]Their "errors" also reflected the dialogue which Christians, haltingly and awkwardly sometimes, but unavoidably, were carrying on with the world of the Enlightenment. Hermann-Josef Pottmeyer concluded his assessment of Dei Filius by saying that the constitution was nothing less than the solemn recognition of the elements of truth in the Enlightenment.3 Pottmeyer is offering a benign assessment of the council's attitude, for the preface to Dei Filius rather speaks about problems to be solved, which had been caused or accentuated by the Enlightenment.4 Perhaps it would be nearer the truth to say that the Catholic semi-rationalists, ontologists, and even fideists were the ones trying to discern the truthful elements emerging from the Enlightenment.5This introductory paper will try to assess: what the semi-rationalists such as Hermes and Günther, the ontologists such as Rosmini-Serbati, and the semi-fideists such as Bautain were trying to achieve; what the maturing judgment of the Church, assisted particularly by the theologians of the "Roman School," was on their efforts; and how this prepared the ground for the Council and the constitution Dei Filius.The Role of Semi-RationalismIt is clear that semi-rationalism, the Catholic version of rationalism as it were, is one of the chief explicit targets of Dei Filius. While rationalism or a total reliance on reason for religious truth, ignoring or rejecting revelation in the process, is a bridge too far for Catholics, semi-rationalism in its [End Page 804] many forms can seem to offer a different kind of bridge, keeping Christian thought in touch with the deliverances of enlightened reason.Semi-rationalism is the view that, while the revelation of God is important and even necessary for knowledge of religious truths (either initially or for the uneducated),human reason can independently demonstrate all or almost all of the truths known through revelation. Accordingly, on this view there are no or very few divine mysteries that cannot be independently proven through reason. Semi-rationalism was especially popular among German Catholic philosophers and theologians at the start of the nineteenth century, as a way to defend Catholicism in post Enlightenment times.6Thinkers of this kind who take center stage in the mind of the fathers of the Council, and of the Church's doctrinal concern in the years leading up to Vatican I, are Hermes, based in the University of Münster, and Günther, a Bohemian who worked and taught (privately) in Vienna. To these we turn.Georg Hermes (1775–1831)Hermes was an influential priest and theologian, professor of dogmatic theology in Münster and eventually in Bonn, with a wide following among his colleagues and students. He was motivated by his exposure to Kantian thought to approach theology as an apologist. His thought is sometimes termed an apologetic... (shrink)

INHALT: a. Besprechungen von J. P. Romangs Uber Willensfreiheit und Determinismus, 1835 - b. Anmerkungen zur [geplanten] 2. Auflage [des Lehrbuchs] der Religionswissenschaft - c. Materialien - d. Zur Athanasia - e. Zur Lebensbeschreibung - f. Herbarts System - g. Ein Vorschlag zur Vermeidung vieler Missverstandnisse in der Philosophie - h. Selbstanzeige der Wissenschaftslehre, 1837 - i. Skizze einer Anzeige der Logik fur die Freimuthigen Blatter - j. Uiber Hrn. Dr. und Prof. J. S. v. Drey Apologetik, 1838 - k. (...) Besprechung von J. A. Brunings Das Daseyn Gottes, 1838 - l. Einwurfe, die gegen Bolzano's Lehren bisher zum Vorschein gekommen, 1838 - m. Auseinandersetzung mit Notizen in Allgemeiner Religions- und Kirchenfreund und Kirchencorrespondent, 1839-1840 - n. Besprechung von M. Drobischs Neue Darstellung der Logik - o. Selbstanzeige von Prufung der Philosophie des seligen Georg Hermes, 1840 - p. Zur Biographie Stoppani's, 1848. (shrink)

This innovative study focuses on the Kantian theory of international relations, a subject which has frequently been either ignored or misunderstood. Kant was criticized by contemporaries who asserted that his political ideas were idealistic and impractical. He countered this accusation by evolving a political philosophy which formed a link between the theoretical doctrine of pure law and the actualities of the real world. The author argues that Kant’s theory of international relations can be read as an attempt to bring reason (...) and history together. Kant tries to apply the a priori principles of reason to history in general, and to the political conditions of the late eighteenth century in particular, and this volume examines the way in which he attempts to mediate between theory and practice. In this stimulating and lucid work, Cavallar provides one of the first comprehensive examinations in English of Kant’s theory of international right. (shrink)