In seinen Vorlesungen über die Ästhetik hat Hegel einen der wichtigsten und wirkmächtigsten Beiträge zur Ästhetik und Philosophie der Kunst entwickelt. Von der systematischen Klärung der Idee des Schönen über die geschichtliche Unterscheidung der symbolischen, klassischen und romantischen Kunstform bis hin zur Darstellung der einzelnen Künste (Architektur, Skulptur, Malerei, Musik, Poesie) werden alle relevanten Aspekte entfaltet und miteinander vernetzt. Eindrucksvoll ist nicht nur Hegels plastischer Zugriff auf die Fülle konkreten Materials. Bedeutsam ist vor allem sein kulturphilosophischer Ansatz, der die Kunst (...) auf dem Rang des "absoluten Geistes" als zentrales Medium menschlicher Selbstverständigung begreift. Die vieldiskutierte These vom "Ende der Kunst" in der Moderne hängt damit direkt zusammen. Hegel hat seine vier Berliner Ästhetik-Kollegien nicht selbst publiziert. Dieser Kommentarband orientiert sich an der Edition des Hegel-Schülers H.G. Hotho und zieht ergänzend die Nachschriften, insbes. des letzten Kollegs von 1828/29 hinzu. In dieser Form wird Hegels Ästhetik auf dem aktuellen Forschungsstand für ein breites philosophisches und kulturwissenschaftliches Interessenfeld erschlossen. Mit Beiträgen von B. Collenberg-Plotnikov, N. Hebing, G. Hindrichs, S. Houlgate, W. Jaeschke, R. Pippin, B. Sandkaulen, U. Seeberg, M. Seel, A. Speight u. J. Stolzenberg. (shrink)

In this paper I argue for the "incompleteness thesis" of Kant's General Metaphysics before completing a full analysis of the power of judgment which only occurred in the Critique of Judgment-Power. Kant scholars have argued that Kant's General Metaphysics was completed with the Critique of Pure Reason and the Third Critique added nothing significant to this quest. One of the issues in this paper is to understand Kant's various "transition problems" and their solution to unify knowledge under a metaphysics, all (...) of which has implications for the natural and cognitive sciences even today. (shrink)

Previous studies show evidence of double standards in terms of individuals being more tolerant of questionable consumer practices than of similar business practices. However, whether these double standards are necessarily due to the fact that one party is a business company while the other is a consumer was not addressed. The results of our two experimental studies, conducted among 277 (Study 1) and 264 (Study 2) participants from a Western European country by means of an anonymous self-administered online survey, demonstrate (...) that the respondents were not only harsher in their judgments of unethical business (vs. consumer) behavior, but also harsher in their judgments of unethical behavior by prosperous (vs. non-prosperous) consumers and prosperous (vs. non-prosperous) business companies (Study 1). Further, they were also less tolerant of unethical behavior by consumers (vs. one's best friend) and business companies with which they have a less than good (vs. a good) relationship (Study 2). These results indicate that double standards are due to differences in perceived wealth between subjects and in the individual's relationship with subjects. These two factors imply that double standards are not strictly reserved to consumer-business relations, but might also be used in business-business and consumer-consumer relations. Further, these results indicate that companies need to be aware of the fact that good financial figures may backfire as they might lead individuals to be more critical of a company's deceptive practices. Moreover, these findings point to the importance of businesses investing resources-and to keep investing resources-in developing a good relationship with stakeholders as these good relationships lead to stakeholders being less prone to make moral condemnations. (shrink)

This book offers an examination of the political dimensions of a number of Jean-Luc Godard’s films from the 1960s to the present. The author seeks to dispel the myth that Godard’s work abandoned political questions after the 1970s and was limited to merely formal ones. The book includes a discussion of militant filmmaking and Godard’s little-known films from the Dziga Vertov Group period, which were made in collaboration with Jean-Pierre Gorin. The chapters present a thorough account of Godard’s investigations on (...) the issue of aesthetic-political representation, including his controversial juxtaposition of the Shoah and the Nakba. Emmelhainz argues that the French director’s oeuvre highlights contradictions between aesthetics and politics in a quest for a dialectical image. By positing all of Godard’s work as experiments in dialectical materialist filmmaking, from Le Petit soldat to Adieu au langage, the author brings attention to Godard’s ongoing inquiry on the role filmmakers can have in progressive political engagement. (shrink)

This study focuses on Kant's attempt to find the link between feeling and cognition on a priori grounds in the three Critiques to make philosophical judgment possible. As such it treats the area of aesthetics and its formal principles. This work explores the enigma: How is it that Kant values the talent to judge more than understanding and reason; indeed the lack of it «no school can make good». Yet, even though Kant demonstrates how a priori synthetic judgments and a (...) priori moral judgments are possible as particular pronouncements, he analyzes the power of judgment itself as an independent faculty only in the last Critique. The author argues that the aesthetic factor plays a recalcitrant, yet vital and necessary role in all human judging. Finding an adequate niche for feeling and its a priori principles becomes a key problem not just for Kant but for the entire philosophical enterprise. (shrink)

To what extent are artists and sitters (or researchers and “objects” of investigation) implicated in their representations of others? How implicated are we when we identify with the way different cultures or perspectives represent ourselves? Understanding how specific forms of representation reveal differently authored perceptions of the individual is a critical concern. My overarching concern, as an artist, is to start mapping contemporary practices of identity formation and expression through the investigation of specific non- Western and subcultural modes that prioritise (...) different codes and social processes of cultural production – modes that do not privilege the gaze. Crucially, the case studies operate a strategic reversal of the classical artistic and scientific approaches: both sides in this dialogue of interpretation and representation involving the artist/researcher and the cultural actor are equally subject and object. The resulting artworks present distinct cultural practices as new possibilities for portrayal, and acts of selection, interpretation and definition as forms of cultural production. (shrink)

Das neue Buch des bereits mit zahlreichen Arbeiten besonders zum Vierten Kreuzzug hervorgetretenen Autors setzt sich aus drei unterschiedlichen, wenn auch eng miteinander verwobenen Teilen zusammen: einer Untersuchung zur Familie und zur Biographie des Dogen Enrico Dandolo, einer Darstellung von Politik und Verfassungsgeschichte Venedigs im 12. Jahrhundert und einer Geschichte des Vierten Kreuzzugs. Die Erzähl- und Argumentationsstränge der drei Teile sind vielfach miteinander verschränkt und verfolgen gemeinsam ein viertes Ziel: anschaulich zu machen, daß die politischen und verfassungsrechtlichen Entwicklungen des 12. (...) Jahrhunderts, besonders aber die mit der Person des Enrico Dandolo eng verbundenen Geschehnisse des Vierten Kreuzzugs die Stadt Venedig fundamental veränderten und sie von einer Kaufmannsrepublik (merchant republic) zu einer Seemacht (maritime empire) werden ließen. (shrink)

Rage in the ‘Nibelungenlied’ is a positive, aboriginal energy. The more easily the hero can access this energetic source, the more powerful he becomes. Marshal charisma is essentially associated with the primary emotion of rage – a fact supremely exemplified by Siegfried. However, charismatic army commanders are quite different from political leaders. The position of the ruler is characterized by a high degree of self-control. Yet the disciplined king depends on his warriors, since the buttressing of his own cognitive distance (...) is accompanied by a weakening of his physical power. Representatives of this position are Gunther in the first part, and in the second, Etzel and his vassal Dietrich. Suspense in the ‘Nibelungenlied’ is thus built around the ambivalent qualities associated with anger. As a basic affect, anger's power stems from the sheer power of life itself; it helps those who admire the hero to identify with him and even feel a sense of delight in doing so. But whilst wrathful devotion is largely celebrated, it emerges elsewhere as the ugly face of general social impotence. The ecstasy of battle, which suggests narcissistic invulnerability, leads to deeply felt mourning amongst the survivors. Thus in the ‘Nibelungenlied’, anger is celebrated and unmasked simultaneously and in equal measure. (shrink)

Patient requests for “inappropriate” medical treatment based on religious beliefs should have special standing. Nevertheless, not all such requests should be honored, because some are morally disturbing. The trouble lies in deciding which ones count. This paper proposes criteria that would qualify a religious belief as medically valid to help physicians decide which requests to respect. The four conditions suggested are that the belief is shared by a community, is deeply held, would pass the test of a religious interpreter and (...) does not harm others. (shrink)

Die Rede ist von einer merkwürdigen Variante deutscher Italiensehnsucht: Dem Wunsch, in Rom begraben zu werden, der im Fall Wilhelm von Humboldts mit einem konkreten Glücksgefühl korreliert. Das ist schon deshalb bemerkenswert, weil Humboldts römischer Aufenthalt vom Sterben dreier seiner Kinder und seines Freundes Schiller überschattet wurde. Die Frage nach dem Niederschlag, den die Auseinandersetzung mit dem Tod in Humboldts Texten fand, rekonstruiert die vorliegende Untersuchung als Form einer Werkpolitik, die es unternimmt, den eigenen Nachruhm in verschiedenen Diskursen zu steuern. (...) Humboldts Terminologie, die den christlich besetzten Begriff,Unsterblichkeit? durch den Begriff,Unendlichkeit? ersetzt, wird in sechs privilegierten Lektüren nachgegangen. (shrink)

Plastids and mitochondria arose through endosymbiotic acquisition of formerly free-living bacteria. During more than a billion years of subsequent concerted evolution, the three genomes of plant cells have undergone dramatic structural changes to optimize the expression of the compartmentalized genetic material and to fine-tune the communication between the nucleus and the organelles. The chimeric composition of many multiprotein complexes in plastids and mitochondria (one part of the subunits being nuclear encoded and another one being encoded in the organellar genome) provides (...) a paradigm for co-evolution at the cellular level. In this paper, we discuss the co-evolution of nuclear and organellar genomes in the context of environmental adaptation in species and populations. We highlight emerging genetic model systems and new experimental approaches that are particularly suitable to elucidate the molecular basis of co-adaptation processes and describe how nuclear-cytoplasmic co-evolution can cause genetic incompatibilities that contribute to the establishment of hybridization barriers, ultimately leading to the formation of new species. (shrink)

The contemporaries of Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (1743-1819) openly acknowledged his towering importance. Both Fichte and Hegel praised him in the same breath with Kant as having launched the philosophical revolution they sought to complete. Yet for more than a century, misrepresentations of Jacobi's thought have stood in the way of a proper appreciation of his insights. In her study of this long-neglected German philosopher, internationally-renowned Jacobi expert Birgit Sandkaulen interprets his philosophical writings in their intellectual context. Originally published in German (...) and translated into English for the first time, this is a major contribution to reading the life, work, and legacy of Jacobi. The biographical chapter on Jacobi's life as a public intellectual was written specifically for this English edition. Offering new perspectives on Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel, Sandkaulen focuses on Jacobi's specific conception of practical realism. This conception, the source of Jacobi's famous defense of faith and human freedom, matches his critique of the German Idealists: the post-Kantian systems of German Idealism were bound to fail. Sandkaulen shows us that long before 20th-century philosophers took up this line of thought, indeed at the very origin of the epoch-making developments of classical German philosophy, Jacobi articulated a practical, ethical, personal realism that is as philosophically appealing and relevant today as it was in its time"--Publisher's description. (shrink)

In modern discourse about the history of science, it seems to be widely accepted that at the end of the nineteenth century, Germany was one of the leading countries in the production of science. In the past, historians of science tried to trace back a specific ‘German style’ of science that—in combination with other factors—determined this German dominance around 1900, especially in the life sciences. Considering the theoretical concept of ‘national styles’, it has to be kept in mind that around (...) 1900, contemporaries already proclaimed ‘national styles’ of science as representations of national identity. Thus, the question arises as to how far existing historiographical conceptions of national styles may include earlier claims and prejudices. Careful reconstructions of contemporary discourses on national styles and inquiries into the ‘stylisation’ of a dominant, successful ‘German style’ are necessary. One of the contemporary critics of a ‘German style’ of science was the physiologist Jacques Loeb (1859–1924), who emigrated to the USA in 1891. Loeb corresponded regularly with the physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach (1838–1916). Ernst Mach can be considered Loeb's intellectual father with whom he corresponded about strategic, philosophical, and epistemological questions. Using the Loeb–Mach correspondence, the aim of the paper is to reconstruct Loeb's conception of a ‘German style’ of science and its differences to an ‘American style’. Changes in his views are discussed as well as the roots of his views and some of their consequences. Finally, Loeb's ideas on national styles and his working profiles before and after his emigration are compared to historiographical analyses of ‘American’ or ‘German’ styles of science around 1900. (shrink)

This highly acclaimed volume brings together some of the world's foremost historians of ideas to consider Machiavelli's political thought in the larger context of the European republican tradition, and the image of Machiavelli held by other republicans. An international team of scholars from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds (notably law, philosophy, history and the history of political thought) explore both the immediate Florentine context in which Machiavelli wrote, and the republican legacy to which he contributed.

This book provides a variety of diverse perspectives related to the ethics of anger, some more analytical in nature, others focused on practical issues, some in defense of anger, and others arguing against its necessity. This book is an essential resource for scholars who want to reflect critically on the place of anger in contemporary life.

As soon as the SARS‐Cov2 disease was recognized by experts to potentially cause a serious pandemic, a three dimensional diagrammatic image of the virus, colored in strong red, conquered public media globally.This study confronts this iconic virus image with a historic image analysis of 33,000 biomedical articles on coronaviruses published between 1968–2020 and interviews with some of their authors.Only a small fraction of scientific virus publications entail images of the complete virus. Red as an alarm color is not used at (...) all by scientists who don't aim for a non‐scientific public.Circulation in this case concerns the movement of iconic images from a scientific context into a general public. On the basis of hps‐studies on scientific diagrams and especially on color use in scientific diagrams to convey specific messages in public, the paper discusses the role of the claim of public corona‐virus diagram as “scientific.”It points at relevant differences between most frequent scientific corona‐virus images and the diagrammatic image used in public. Both author‐ and readerships (in science and public) follow contrasting aims and values. Thus, the images meet non‐expert readers for whom the images entail very different – and potentially unintended – meanings then to virus experts. (shrink)

This essay deals with a particularly recalcitrant problem in the history of ideas, that of irrationalism. It emerged to full consciousness in mid-eighteenth century thought. Irrationalism was a logical consequence of individualism which in turn was a direct outcome of the Cartesian self-reflective subject. In time these tendencies produced the "critical" Zeitgeist and the "epoch of taste" during which Kant began thinking about such matters. Like Alfred Bäumler, I argue that irrationalism could not have arisen in ancient or medieval philosophical (...) discourse, as they both lacked a certain type of rationalism required as its conceptual antipode. Only after the Lisbon earthquake (1755), and the ensuing reason vs. passion debate acknowledging for the first time both human powers as equal contenders, did the specter of irrationalism arise and become a focus. Kant's revolution in thought produced "transcendental psychology" reconciling "pure" sensibility and "pure" reason and provided, I argue, the conceptual wherewithal to grant aesthetic feeling and irrationalism a philosophical niche. (shrink)

Recent communication research indicates that approach and avoidance constitute two separate yet co-existing processes during media exposure. While many studies address TV approach behavior, little is known about TV avoidance behavior. Furthermore, personality has yet to be linked to avoidance behavior. This study analyzes the influence of personality on TV program avoidance. Data show that the “Big Five” personality characteristics and Risk and Fight Willingness influence program avoidance, albeit to varying degrees. While the specific correlations are discussed in the paper, (...) the results generally reveal that the combination of personality and avoidance has added value in terms of understanding of TV using behavior compared to the frequently analyzed link between personality and approach. For nearly all personality characteristics, data show that the avoidance perspective is more than the inversion of the approach perspective. The findings are discussed with reference to gratification and selectivity research. (shrink)

I argue that once one holds (as Kant does) that the mind is equipped with innate, pre-existing, i.e. a priori structures, one can ask (as materialists or empiricists would), Is there an identifiable source of such structures and what does it imply? Already Schopenhauer, Moses Mendelssohn and others have taken that route of argument, without fully drawing the implications. In this paper I attempt to do so, posing the query: Is Kant's very explicit separation of the transcendent from the transcendental (...) necessary in his critical system? I try to answer from various perspectives. (shrink)