Emotional competence has an important influence on development in school. We hypothesized that reading and discussing children’s books with emotional content increases children’s emotional competence. To examine this assumption, we developed a literature-based intervention, named READING and FEELING, and tested it on 104 second and third graders in their after-school care center. Children who attended the same care center but did not participate in the emotion-centered literary program formed the control group ( n = 104). Our goal was to promote (...) emotional competence and to evaluate the effectiveness of the READING and FEELING program. Emotional competence variables were measured prior to the intervention and 9 weeks later, at the end of the program. Results revealed significant improvements in the emotional vocabulary, explicit emotional knowledge, and recognition of masked feelings. Regarding the treatment effect for detecting masked feelings, we found that boys benefited significantly more than girls. These findings underscore the assumption that children’s literature is an appropriate vehicle to support the development of emotional competence in middle childhood. (shrink)

In paragraph 21 of his "Logic of Scientific Discovery", Karl Popper characterizes with the help of two seemingly synonymous definitions the falsifiability of a theory as a logical relation between the theory itself and its basic statements. It is shown that his definitions do not agree with each other, and this result is applied to the problem of the falsifiability of contradictions, to the difference between falsifiable and empirical statements and to the demarcation criterion.

Abstract.If norms are neither true nor false, can logical relations such as contradiction and entailment obtain between them? Earlier logical positivists and also Hans Kelsen in his later years have answered the question with No. While appreciating the seriousness of the problem, the author of the present paper makes a fresh attempt to answer the question with Yes. His answer presupposes that norms can be judged from the point of view of their rationality. The deontic loic or logic of norms (...) built on this foundation is much more restricted, however, than tae “classical” systems. This again is a consequence of the author's opinion that the sentential connectives (negation, conjunction, disjunction, etc.) apply to norms only on condition that they can be “shifted” from joining norm‐formulations to the descriptive contents of the norms themselves. (shrink)

This commentary is an elaboration on Schyns, Goldstone & Thibaut's proposal for flexible features in categorization in the light of three areas not explicitly discussed by the authors: connectionist models of categorization, computational learning theory, and constructivist theories of the mind. In general, the authors' proposal is strongly supported, paving the way for model extensions and for interesting novel cognitive research. Nor is the authors' proposal incompatible with theories positing some fixed set of features.

Abstract.If norms are neither true nor false, can logical relations such as contradiction and entailment obtain between them? Earlier logical positivists and also Hans Kelsen in his later years have answered the question with No. While appreciating the seriousness of the problem, the author of the present paper makes a fresh attempt to answer the question with Yes. His answer presupposes that norms can be judged from the point of view of their rationality. The deontic loic or logic of norms (...) built on this foundation is much more restricted, however, than tae “classical” systems. This again is a consequence of the author's opinion that the sentential connectives (negation, conjunction, disjunction, etc.) apply to norms only on condition that they can be “shifted” from joining norm‐formulations to the descriptive contents of the norms themselves. (shrink)

Der Band bilanziert die aktuellen Debatten zum politischen Handeln. Dabei wird insbesondere versucht, die Verbindung zwischen Beiträgen aus der Politikwissenschaft und der Politikdidaktik zu intensivieren. Unterschiedliche Zugänge zum Phänomenbereich des Politischen Handelns werden aufgezeigt und auf verschiedene Wege hingewiesen, wie normative Modelle in die Debatten über ein angemessenes Verständnis Politischen Handelns und der Handlungsfähigkeit sinnvoll einfliessen können. Den AutorInnen geht es darum, die Formulierung einer angemessenen Konzeption Politischen Handelns für die Politische Bildung und Politikdidaktik auf Basis empirischer Befunde zu unterstützen (...) sowie auf theoretischer Ebene genauer auszuloten. Welche Spielräume gibt bzw. sollte es für Politisches Handeln in modernen Gesellschaften geben? Für die Politische Bildung werden zudem wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse aufgearbeitet, welche konkrete Hinweise für die Praxis bieten. (shrink)

El presente ensayo investiga la filosofia política de Rousseau bajo la perspectiva de la problemática del poder. El contrato social no se orienta por el primado moderno del "Gobierno", sino que concibe la constitución de la comunidad como un modo autónomo de poder que en condiciones democráticas alcanza su realización en la soberanía popular. La figura enigmática del legislador pone de manifiesto, aunque en forma restringida, una tercera forma de poder: la autoridad o el poder de acción en cuanto competencia (...) de iniciativas políticas. El balance entre estos tres tipos de poder constituye el marco en que se inscribe la concepción moderna de la política. (shrink)

Ensayo de Georg Simmel “Böcklins Landschaften” en su lengua original, publicado en 1885 en el semanario Die Zukunft. ARK: ark:/s18537960/ioe402sw2.

This document includes the first English translation of Georg Trakl’s recently discovered poem “Hölderlin,” along with two commentaries on it. Moore’s commentary highlights the significance of this poem for continental philosophy (especially Heidegger and Derrida) by focusing on the German word for madness, Wahnsinn, which Trakl (mis)spells with three n’s. Moore argues that this word resists the sense of gentle gathering that Heidegger locates in Trakl’s poetry and therefore in Hölderlin and his madness. Trakl is, rather, a precursor to (...) Paul Celan. Moore’s commentary concludes with a new translation of Celan’s own poetic response to Hölderlin, titled “Tübingen, Jänner.” Weichselbaum’s commentary discusses the background for the genesis and discovery of Trakl’s “Hölderlin.” Weichselbaum compares this poem with other moments in which Trakl alludes to Hölderlin. (shrink)

Die psychoanalytische Sozialarbeit und psychoanalytische Pädagogik sind wichtige und relevante Felder der Anwendung der Psychoanalyse. Der Beitrag zeichnet zunächst ihre Entstehung und Geschichte in verschiedenen Ländern nach, wo sie jeweils eigene Ausformungen gefunden haben, um dann ihre gegenwärtige Theorie und Praxis zu skizzieren. Sozialarbeit versucht, bei materieller Not, die sehr verschiedene Gesichter haben kann, zu helfen, die Psychoanalyse, indem sie Selbsterkenntnis und Selbstveränderung fördert, wenn seelische Not oder interaktionelle Störungen bestehen: Mithilfe kleiner Fallbeispiele wird gezeigt, dass und wie psychoanalytische Sozialarbeit (...) diese zwei unterschiedlichen Formen der Hilfe miteinander verbindet. (shrink)

This paper analyzes the coordination challenge a partial cartel faces when payoff asymmetries between potential cartel insiders and potential cartel outsiders are large. We introduce two experimental treatments: a standard treatment where a complete cartel can be supported in a Nash equilibrium and a modified treatment where a complete cartel and a partial cartel can both be supported in a Nash equilibrium. To assess the role of communication both treatments are additionally run with a “chat option,” yielding four treatments in (...) total. Our results show that subjects frequently reject the formation of partial cartels in the modified treatments. In all treatments with communication subjects are more likely to form complete cartels than partial cartels. The implications of these results are important for antitrust: payoff asymmetries between cartel members and outsiders may jeopardize the formation of partial cartels. Yet complete cartels may be formed instead, if institutional mechanisms with frequent communication are used to form cartels. (shrink)

A collection of essays by German philosophers on the question of the dispensability or indispensability of language for human capacities of thought, perception, and agency.

In the present paper we empirically investigate the psychometric properties of some of the most famous statistical and logical cognitive illusions from the “heuristics and biases” research program by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, who nearly 50 years ago introduced fascinating brain teasers such as the famous Linda problem, the Wason card selection task, and so-called Bayesian reasoning problems (e.g., the mammography task). In the meantime, a great number of articles has been published that empirically examine single cognitive illusions, theoretically (...) explaining people’s faulty thinking, or proposing and experimentally implementing measures to foster insight and to make these problems accessible to the human mind. Yet these problems have thus far usually been empirically analyzed on an individual-item level only (e.g., by experimentally comparing participants’ performance on various versions of one of these problems). In this paper, by contrast, we examine these illusions as a group and look at the ability to solve them as a psychological construct. Based on an sample ofN= 2,643 Luxembourgian school students of age 16–18 we investigate the internal psychometric structure of these illusions (i.e., Are they substantially correlated? Do they form a reflexive or a formative construct?), their connection to related constructs (e.g., Are they distinguishable from intelligence or mathematical competence in a confirmatory factor analysis?), and the question of which of a person’s abilities can predict the correct solution of these brain teasers (by means of a regression analysis). (shrink)

Nowadays Kant's practical philosophy is as highly regarded as his theoretical philosophy. This is an important development since the more constructive side of Kant's philosophy is to be found in his moral and political works. The main task of the Critique of Pure Reason is to clarify its concepts and to get rid of basic errors, and thus only ‘negative’. The moral and political writings, on the other hand, try to expand the scope of reason ‘for practical purposes’ . Establishing (...) principles of moral and political conduct, their main objective is not negative, but constructive. (shrink)

A collection of classic essays by two highly regarded scholars on the development of yoga and its rapport with other religious traditions. Georg Feuerstein, one of the world's foremost scholars of yoga, and Jeanine Miller, long recognized for her insightful commentaries on the RgVeda, here pool their considerable talents in a look at the development of yogic thought across the ages and its similarities with the Christian mysticism of Meister Eckhart. Two of their essays included here, one concerning the (...) essence of yoga and the other looking at the meaning of suffering in yoga, have long been singled out by indologists for correcting prevalent misconceptions and providing a conceptual framework for many of the subsequent studies in that field. The reprinting of these important essays in The Essence of Yoga gives new readers a chance to share some of the authors' earliest insights into yoga and their deep conviction that these discoveries are of the highest significance for a proper understanding of the human condition. (shrink)

Proceedings of a conference held October 2003 at the University of Regensburg.