The existence of an animal soul and problems of animal ethics are often discussed in the German philosophical literature of the 18th century, especially in response to the cartesian theory of the beast machine. The following paper presents firstly a view into the early discussions and doctrines about animal souls (e.g., Winkler, Meier). It unfolds secondly some strategies for the legitimation of the death of animals, including contemporary concepts of soul, mainly under the influence of Leibniz. The third part (...) examines some fundamental concepts of obligations to animals within the discussion of natural rights (e.g., Thomasius, Kant). Finally, examples for the early considerations about animal rights (Dietler, Smith) are presented. (shrink)

Born in 1900–1901 with the publication of Edmund Husserl’s Logical Investigations, phenomenology, as a critical method of reflection on consciousness and its cognitive achievements against its naturalisation in the natural sciences, has undergone many changes and developments. Critiques of both its methods and tasks have emerged, plus it has served as an inspiration for numerous thinkers, including Max Scheler, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Gabriel Marcel, Simone de Beauvoir, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jean-Luc Nancy, Michel Henry, Emmanuel Levinas, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Paul Ricoeur (...) and Jacques Derrida, in their attempts to address the question of value, the meaning of being, existence, the lived body, the Other, life, art, history and language in original and fresh ways. The current paper reflects upon the question of what the fate of phenomenology in the twenty-first century could be by considering some of the recent work presented at the first conference of the South African Centre for Phenomenology held at the University of Johannesburg earlier this year. (shrink)

Mit dem vorliegenden Buch wird eine erkenntnistheoretische Fundierung f r eine empirische Rechtswissenschaft und f r eine ihr ad quate Methode angeboten. Im Mittelpunkt steht eine grundlegende Untersuchung des Verh ltnisses von Sein und Sollen. Veranschaulicht durch eine kritische Auseinandersetzung mit den tragenden Gedanken der reinen Rechtslehre Hans Kelsens und mit ihrem geistesgeschichtlichen Hintergrund, dem bisher noch keine geb hrende Beachtung zuteil geworden ist, entwickelt der Verfasser theoretische Grundpositionen f r eine dem positiven Recht und seiner sozial-kulturellen Erheblichkeit angemessene (...) Rechtserkenntnislehre und Rechtstheorie. Diese gr nden sich auf die transzendentale Logik Immanuel Kants. Der Verfasser, Doyen der sterreichischen Staatsrechtslehre und Leitfigur vieler Juristengenerationen, legt mit diesem Buch das Ergebnis seiner jahrzehntelangen Befassung mit Fragen der Rechtstheorie und der Rechtserkenntnislehre vor. Er kommt zum Ergebnis, da die Rechtswissenschaft die Verkn pfung von Sein und Sollen in Rechtserzeugung, Rechtsbestand und Rechtsverwirklichung erkenntnistheoretisch, rechtstheoretisch und methodologisch beachten mu, will sie das Recht als ein komplexes Kulturph nomen gegenstandsgerecht begreifen. Eine rein normative Rechtslehre versperrt den erkenntnism igen Zugang zum Wesen des positiven Rechts, das nicht nur als ein formales Sollen, sondern auch als eine seinsgebundene wert- und zweckhafte Sinneinheit in Form und Inhalt erkannt, beschrieben, erkl rt, verstehend gedeutet und seinen Eigenarten gem dargestellt werden mu. (shrink)

Throughout the history of philosophy, skepticism has posed one of the central challenges of epistemology. Opponents of skepticism--including externalists, contextualists, foundationalists, and coherentists--have focussed largely on one particular variety of skepticism, often called Cartesian or Academic skepticism, which makes the radical claim that nobody can know anything. However, this version of skepticism is something of a straw man, since virtually no philosopher endorses this radical skeptical claim. The only skeptical view that has been truly held--by Sextus, Montaigne, Hume, Wittgenstein, and, (...) most recently, Robert Fogelin--has been Pyrrohnian skepticism. Pyrrhonian skeptics do not assert Cartesian skepticism, but neither do they deny it. The Pyrrhonian skeptics' doubts run so deep that they suspend belief even about Cartesian skepticism and its denial. Nonetheless, some Pyrrhonians argue that they can still hold "common beliefs of everyday life" and can even claim to know some truths in an everyday way. This edited volume presents previously unpublished articles on this subject by a strikingly impressive group of philosophers, who engage with both historical and contemporary versions of Pyrrhonian skepticism. Among them are Gisela Striker, Janet Broughton, Don Garrett, Ken Winkler, Hans Sluga, Ernest Sosa, Michael Williams, Barry Stroud, Robert Fogelin, and Roy Sorensen. This volume is thematically unified and will interest a broad spectrum of scholars in epistemology and the history of philosophy. (shrink)

Introduces contemporary American philosophy of technology through six of its leading figures. The six American philosophers of technology whose work is profiled in this clear and concise introduction to the field—Albert Borgmann, Hubert Dreyfus, Andrew Feenberg, Donna Haraway, Don Ihde, and Langdon Winner—represent a new, empirical direction in the philosophical study of technology that has developed mainly in North America. In place of the grand philosophical schemes of the classical generation of European philosophers of technology, the contemporary American generation addresses (...) concrete technological practices and the co-evolution of technology and society in modern culture. Six Dutch philosophers associated with Twente University survey and critique the full scope and development of their American colleagues’ work, often illustrating shifts from earlier to more recent interests. Individual chapters focus on Borgmann’s engagement with technology and everyday life; Dreyfus’s work on the limits of artificial intelligence; Feenberg’s perspectives on the cultural and social possibilities opened by technologies; Haraway’s conception of the cyborg and its attendant blurring of boundaries; Ihde’s explorations of the place of technology in the lifeworld; and Winner’s fascination with the moral and political implications of modern technologies. American Philosophy of Technology offers an insightful and readable introduction to this new and distinctly American philosophical turn. Contributors are Hans Achterhuis, Philip Brey, René Munnik, Martijntje Smits, Pieter Tijmes, and Peter-Paul Verbeek. (shrink)

Wissenschaftler verschiedener Fachrichtungen (Theologen, Historiker, Padagogen, Literaturwissenschaftler und Musikwissenschaftler) haben sich 2017 mit der Frage befasst, wie weit Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803) durch eine Interpretation seiner Position in Weimar als Superintendent besser verstanden werden konnte, arbeitend unter dem Bilde Luthers, sich diesem lebenslang verpflichtet fuhlend auch als Aufklarer. Kann man den "Theologen unter den Klassikern" aus dem Geflecht der Beziehungen zu Goethe, Schiller und Wieland losen, aus seinen Beziehungen zum Hof, zur Stadt, zur Schule in Weimar? Andererseits lebte er autonom (...) aus der Idee, das Erbe der Reformation fur eine neue Zeit umformen zu mussen. Aus diesen Fragestellungen fallt neues Licht auf die deutsche Geistesgeschichte, auf die Herder gerade als Protestant massgeblich eingewirkt hat. Mit Beitragen von:Martin Bollacher, Claas Cordemann, Corinna Dahlgrun, Stefanie Freyer, Stefan Gerber, Hans-Werner Hahn, Henry Hope, Martin Kessler, Roland M. Lehmann, Johannes von Lupke, Michael Maurer, Hans-Jurgen Schrader, Christopher Spehr, Michael Winkler. (shrink)

Current radical democratic politics is characterized by new participatory spaces for citizens’ engagement, which aim at facilitating the democratic ideals of freedom and equality. These spaces are, however, situated in the context of deep societal inequalities. Modes of discrimination are carried over into participatory interaction. The democratic subject is judged by its physically embodied appearance, which replicates external hierarchies and impedes the freedom of self-expression. To tackle this problem, this article seeks to identify ways to increase the freedom of the (...) subject to explore its multiple self. Understanding the self as inherently fugitive, the article investigates participatory, deliberative and agonistic concepts of self-transformation. As all of them appear limited, it introduces a transformative perspective in democratic thought. Enriching the transformative perspective with queer and gender theory, the article generates the concept of a politics of becoming, which, through radical democratic practices of disidentification, advances the freedom of the subject to change. (shrink)

This lucid and accessible dictionary presents technical terms that Wittgenstein introduced into philosophical debate or transformed substantially, and also topics to which he made a substantial contribution. Hans-Johann Glock places Wittgenstein's ideas in their historical context, and indicates their impact on his contemporaries as well as their relevance to current debates. The entries delineate Wittgenstein's lines of argument on particular issues, assessing their strengths and weaknesses, and shed light on fundamental exegetical controversies. The dictionary entries are prefaced by a (...) ‘Sketch of an Intellectual Biography’, which links the basic themes of the early and later philosophy and describes the general development of Wittgenstein's thinking. Extensive textual references, a detailed index and an annotated bibliography will facilitate further study. Authoritative, comprehensive and clear, the volume will be welcomed by anyone with an interest in Wittgenstein – his life, work or influence. Each Blackwell Philosopher Dictionary presents the life and work of an individual philosopher in a scholarly but accessible manner. Entries cover key ideas and thoughts, as well as the main themes of the philosopher's works. A comprehensive biographical sketch is also included. (shrink)

Andrew Arato. Seyla Benhabib. Hauke Brunkhorst. Cornelius Castoriadis. Jean Cohen. Helmut Dubiel. Klaus Eder. Gunter Frankenberg. Hans-Georg Gadamer. Axel Honneth. Johann Baptist Metz. Gertrud Nunner-Winkler. Claus Offe.".

Radical democratic thinking is becoming intrigued by the material situatedness of its political agents and by the role of nonhuman participants in political interaction. At stake here is the displacement of narrow anthropocentrism that currently guides democratic theory and practice, and its repositioning into what we call ‘the nonhuman condition’. This Critical Exchange explores the nonhuman condition. It asks: What are the implications of decentering the human subject via a new materialist reading of radical democracy? Does this reading dilute political (...) agency? Or should this be seen, on the contrary, as an invitation for new voices and demands to enter into democratic assemblages? How might engagement with the more-than-human disrupt or extend theories of radical democracy? Hans Asenbaum and Amanda Machin discuss the human democratic subject both through radical democratic and new materialist lenses. They suggest that a new materialist decentred subject does not lose agency but further gains political responsibility in radical democracy. Jean-Paul Gagnon highlights the possibility of becoming through loss. In losing our anthropocentric arrogance—our understanding of being other and better than animal—we become more connected and discover our place in human-nonhuman assemblages. Melissa Orlie agrees that something can be gained through renouncing dominant human fantasies and presents a ‘radical democratic naturalism’. By renouncing land violence and acknowledging nature’s subjectivity, we can further nonexploitative radical democratic politics. This is where the notion of ‘tidalectic’ processes introduced by James L. Smith is helpful. Focusing on water and the Indigenous knowledges around rivers, he considers how democracy and community can be reimagined as plural, cyclical and attentive to the nonhuman with which the human is inevitably entangled. Diana Leong offers a different approach. Considering the nonhuman from the perspective of Black Studies demands an awareness to how blackness has long been constituted as non- or partially human. (shrink)

Quine and Davidson are among the leading thinkers of the twentieth century. Their influence on contemporary philosophy is second to none, and their impact is also strongly felt in disciplines such as linguistics and psychology. This book is devoted to both of them, but also questions some of their basic assumptions. Hans-Johann Glock critically scrutinizes their ideas on ontology, truth, necessity, meaning and interpretation, thought and language, and shows that their attempts to accommodate meaning and thought within a naturalistic (...) framework, either by impugning them as unclear or by extracting them from physical facts, are ultimately unsuccessful. His discussion includes interesting comparisons of Quine and Davidson with other philosophers, particularly Wittgenstein, and also offers detailed accounts of central issues in contemporary analytic philosophy, such as the nature of truth and of meaning and interpretation, and the relation between thought and language. (shrink)

Het is bijna niet voor te stellen hoeveel Foucaults studie Surveiller et punir in het verleden betekend heeft voor mij en een belangrijk deel van mijn generatie. Vanwege mijn Franse achtergrond – ik promoveerde in Straatsburg op een proefschrift over Albert Camus – kende ik Foucault en zijn werk al goed. Je kon met name in de zomer van 1967 gewoon niet om hem heen. In alle parken en cafés rond de universiteit zaten toen in Straatsburg studenten zijn dikke boek (...) Les mots et les choses ostentatief te etaleren. Ze hadden het met de titelpagina naar boven naast of voor zich liggen, of hielden hun kostbare schat, met weer de titel goed zichtbaar in de hand. Het kwam zelden voor dat ze erin lazen. Als buitenlander begreep ik er niets van. Mijn Franse vrienden legden het mij uit. (shrink)

Zu den heftig diskutierten Themen der zeitgenössischen Philosophie gehört die Frage nach der Lebenswelt. Oft erscheint sie als eine Welt des alltäglichen Handelns, aus der die Philosophie entspringt, ohne doch in ihr aufgehen zu können. Zum 90. Geburtstag von Hans Blumenberg präsentiert der Suhrkamp Verlag nun einen Nachlaßtext, in dem der Philosoph das Problem weit radikaler faßt. Blumenberg begreift die Lebenswelt nicht als faktische Welt oder Alltagswelt, sondern als die Welt, wie sie wäre, wenn es in ihr keine unbeantworteten (...) Fragen, keine unbefriedigten Bedürfnisse, keine ungesicherten Aussagen gäbe. In dieser Welt der Selbstverständlichkeit ist Philosophie noch nicht möglich oder nicht mehr nötig. Von Kants »Ding an sich± über die Schwarzen Löcher der Astronomen bis hin zum Zustand wunschlosen Glücks reichen Blumenbergs Vergleiche, die auf immer wieder überraschende Weise beleuchten, worin die Schwierigkeiten liegen, die Lebenswelt überhaupt zum Gegenstand von Erkenntnis zu machen. Es zeigt sich, daß die Beziehung zwischen Theorie und Lebenswelt in einer Erfahrung des Verlusts gesucht werden muß: Wissenschaft ist nichts anderes als der Versuch, mit den Folgen des Verschwindens von Selbstverständlichkeit fertig zu werden. (shrink)

Michael Dummett, following an established line of reasoning, has interpreted Frege as a realist. But his claim that Frege was arguing against a dominant idealism is untenable. While there are passages in Frege's writings that seem to support a realistic interpretation, others are irreconcilable with it. The issue can be resolved only by examining the historical context. Frege's thought is, in fact, related to the philosophy of Hermann Lotze. Frege is best regarded as a transcendental idealist in the Lotze-Kant tradition. (...) His contextual principle is a linguistic version of Kant's principle of the transcendental unity of judgment. By ignoring the historical context Dummett has been led to misinterpret the precise role of the contextual principle in Frege's thought. (shrink)

Analytic philosophy is roughly a hundred years old, and it is now the dominant force within Western philosophy. Interest in its historical development is increasing, but there has hitherto been no sustained attempt to elucidate what it currently amounts to, and how it differs from so-called 'continental' philosophy. In this rich and wide-ranging book, Hans Johann Glock argues that analytic philosophy is a loose movement held together both by ties of influence and by various 'family resemblances'. He considers the (...) pros and cons of various definitions of analytic philosophy, and tackles the methodological, historiographical and philosophical issues raised by such definitions. Finally, he explores the wider intellectual and cultural implications of the notorious divide between analytic and continental philosophy. His book is an invaluable guide for anyone seeking to understand analytic philosophy and how it is practised. (shrink)

Welche Problemlagen fordern Christen heute heraus, sich politisch zu engagieren? In welchen Formen reagieren sie darauf? Wie soll sich Christliche Sozialethik auf solche "Politik aus dem Glauben" beziehen und wie kann sie diese orientierend unterstutzen? Das Buch ist dem Theorie-Praxis-Verhaltnis der Christlichen Sozialethik gewidmet, das fur das Denken von Prof. Dr. Friedhelm Hengsbach SJ zentral ist. Aus Anlass seines 80. Geburtstags setzen sich 22 namhafte Autorinnen und Autoren mit dieser Fragestellung auseinander. Neben Beitragen zum Wandel der politischen Praxis von Christen (...) und Grundlagenreflexionen zum Status der Sozialethik als praktischer Wissenschaft enthalt der Band Untersuchungen zu politischen Antworten auf Digitalisierung, europaische Krise und Rechtspopulismus sowie Artikel, in denen exemplarisch aufgezeigt wird, wie Sozialethik zur Orientierung sozialpolitischen oder wirtschaftlichen Handelns beitragen kann. Das Buch endet mit einer Antwort Friedhelm Hengsbachs. Mit Beitragen von Anika Christina Albert, Michelle Becka, Rainer Bucher, Bernhard Emunds, Johannes Eurich, Karl Gabriel, Stephan Goertz, Friedhelm Hengsbach SJ, Hans-Joachim Hohn, Traugott Jahnichen, Judith Konemann, Bernhard Laux, Walter Lesch, Andreas Lob-Hudepohl, Torsten Meireis, Dietmar Mieth, Matthias Mohring-Hesse, Martin Schneider, Michael Schramm, Christian Spiess, Johannes Ulrich, Markus Vogt, Gunter Wilhelm und Katja Winkler. (shrink)

Observation and conceptual interpretation constitute the two major ways through which human beings engage the world. _The World Observed/The World Conceived _presents an innovative analysis of the nature and role of observation and conceptualization. While these two actions are often treated as separate, Hans Radder shows that they are inherently interconnected-that materially realized observational processes are always conceptually interpreted and that the meaning of concepts depends on the way they structure observational processes and abstract from them. He examines the (...) role of human action and conceptualization in realizing observational processes and develops a detailed theory of the relationship between observation, abstraction, and the meaning of concepts. This book provides a critical analysis of the work of various other philosophers and their accounts of scientific and ordinary-life observation and conceptualization. Radder discusses the formation and nature of concepts and demonstrates how concepts structure the phenomenal world. He then introduces and defines the notions of extensible concepts, abstraction and nonlocal meanings and explores the philosophical implications of his theory. _The World Observed/The World Conceived_ offers fresh insights in practices of observation and conceptualization, that will prove useful to many areas of scholarly study including ontology, epistemology, philosophy of language, philosophy of science, science studies, and cognitive science. (shrink)

This volume answers the question: Why do we believe what we believe? It examines current research on the concept of beliefs, and the development in our understanding of the process of believing. It takes into account empirical findings in the field of neuroscience regarding the processes that underlie beliefs, and discusses the notion that beyond the interactive exploratory analysis of sensory information from the complex outside world, humans engage in an evaluative analysis by which they attribute personal meaning and relevance (...) to the probabilistic representations of objects and events. Beliefs exert a strong influence on behaviour, decision-making, and identifying and solving problems. Despite their importance, beliefs have until recently not been at the centre of scientific interest. In fact, "belief" is an ill-defined phenomenon. From a transdisciplinary perspective the actual approaches to understanding belief seem incompatible as they attempt to highlight such different topics as "belief - religion", "belief - spirituality", "belief - faith", "belief - knowledge", "belief - attitude", "belief - disbelief", "belief - illusion", and "believing - brain function". This situation contradicts the idea that belief is close to pathological phenomena and that it should be eliminated from scientific discussions. Rather, believing is fundamental for understanding the many problems of every-day life. In fact, the book shows that beliefs are relevant for politics, international affairs, economy, law, or religions also in modern societies. This book presents the increasing scientific interest in beliefs and believing, and reflects the change in focus from the content aspect of belief towards the fluid nature of believing. (shrink)

A partial ordering in the class of observables (∼ positive operator-valued measures, introduced by Davies and by Ludwig) is explored. The ordering is interpreted as a form of nonideality, and it allows one to compare ideal and nonideal versions of the same observable. Optimality is defined as maximality in the sense of the ordering. The framework gives a generalization of the usual (implicit) definition of self-adjoint operators as optimal observables (von Neumann), but it can, in contrast to this latter definition, (...) be justified operationally. The nonideality notion is compared to other quantum estimation theoretic methods. Measures for the amount of nonideality are derived from information theory. (shrink)

The directionality of space-number association (SNA) is shaped by cultural experiences. It usually follows the culturally dominant reading direction. Smaller numbers are generally associated with the starting side for reading (left side in Western cultures), while larger numbers are associated with the right endpoint side. However, SNAs consistent with cultural reading directions are present before children can actually read and write. Therefore, these SNAs cannot only be shaped by the direction of children’s own reading/writing behavior. We propose six distinct processes (...) – one biological and five cultural/educational – underlying directional SNAs before formal reading acquisition: (i) Brain lateralization, (ii) Monitoring adult reading behavior, (iii) Pretend reading and writing, and rudimentary reading and writing skills, (iv) Dominant attentional directional preferences in a society, not directly related to reading direction, (v) Direct spatial-numerical learning, (vi) Other spatial-directional processes independent of reading direction. In this mini-review, we will differentiate between these processes, elaborate when in development they might emerge, discuss how they may create the SNAs observed in preliterate children and propose how they can be studied in the future. (shrink)

This paper presents a generalization of the standard notions of left monotonicity (on the nominal argument of a determiner) and right monotonicity (on the VP argument of a determiner). Determiners such as “more than/at least as many as” or “fewer than/at most as many as”, which occur in so-called propositional comparison, are shown to be monotone with respect to two nominal arguments and two VP-arguments. In addition, it is argued that the standard Generalized Quantifier analysis of numerical determiners such as (...) “more than three/at least three” is a simplification which ignores the fundamental parallellism with the propositional comparatives. Furthermore, the symmetric monotonicity configurations of the existential “some” and “no” are shown to be straightforwardly related to those of numerical comparatives with the limit numeral zero, whereas the asymmetric configurations of universal “all” and “not all” involve the extra complicating mechanism of polarity reversal, which is related to Keenan's notion of co-intersectivity (as opposed to intersectivity). A second aim of the paper is to investigate some of the factors reducing the inferential potential of determiners. Different types of comparative determiners and their modification will be considered in detail. In addition, a systematic interaction will be revealed between the monotonicity properties of the determiners in propositional comparatives and the differ ent types of ellipsis in the “than”-complement. Different degrees of ellipsis are defined in terms of informational dependencies between the “than”-complement and the main clause. A general balancing mechanism is observed by virtue of which an increase in informational dependency is compensated by a reduction of the inferential potential of the comparative determiner. The structure of the paper is as follows. Part two deals with propositional comparison and introduces the two basic monotonicity configurations. Part three distinguishes three types of informational dependencies or ellipsis between the “than”-complement and the main clause. In Section 3.1 the “than”-complement only contains a VP constituent, whereas in Section 3.2. it only consists of a nominal constituent. Section 3.3 considers more complex instances of multiple dependencies. Section 3.4 then looks at the interaction of these three types with the modifier “proportionally”. Part four presents the two basic monotonicity configurations for numerical comparison, whereas part five deals with more complex numerical determiners. Bounding determiners, such as “between five and ten”, and other boolean combinations are discussed in Section 5.1, whereas Section 5.2 goes into approximative determiners involving modifiers such as “only” or “almost”. Section 5.3. is devoted to proportional determiners such as “more than two out of three”. Part six then considers the standard existential and universal quantifiers. Section 6.1 reformulates the standard Generalized Quantifier analysis in comparative terms, whereas Section 6.2 deals with exception determiners of the form “all but five”. (shrink)

Summary In his article the author criticizes the methodological separatism which is typical for the cultural sciences where the so called method of understanding is considered the adequate alternative to the method of natural science. On the basis of a conception which accentuates the role of theoretical assumptions in thinking the author seeks to show that it is possible to give an interpretation of understanding which is able to overcome methodological separatism, avoiding at the same time the positivistical solution which (...) usually is proposed. The general idea behind the new solution is to show the necessity of an explanation of understanding. (shrink)

Felix Kaufmanns Wissenschaftstheorie Hans-Georg Zilian. X KAUFMANN, DIE ÖKONOMEN UND DAS A PRIORI Bei den österreichischen Grenznutzentheoretikern, mit deren Arbeiten sich Kaufmann vor allem auseinandersetzte, ist von ...