The theory of nonlinear complex systems has become a successful and widely used problem-solving approach in the natural sciences - from laser physics, quantum chaos and meteorology to molecular modeling in chemistry and computer simulations of cell growth in biology. In recent times it has been recognized that many of the social, ecological and political problems of mankind are also of a global, complex and nonlinear nature. And one of the most exciting topics of present scientific and public interest is (...) the idea that even the human mind is governed largely by the nonlinear dynamics of complex systems. In this wide-ranging but concise treatment Prof. Mainzer discusses, in nontechnical language, the common framework behind these endeavours. Special emphasis is given to the evolution of new structures in natural and cultural systems and it is seen clearly how the new integrative approach of complexity theory can give new insights that were not available using traditional reductionistic methods. (shrink)

Attention is automatically allocated to stimuli that are opposite in valence to the current motivational focus (Rothermund, 2003; Rothermund, Voss, & Wentura, 2008). We tested whether this incongruency effect is due to affective–motivational counter-regulation or to an increased salience of stimuli that mismatch with cognitively activated information. Affective processing biases were assessed with a search task in which participants had to detect the spatial position at which a positive or negative stimulus was presented. In the motivational condition, positive or negative (...) affective–motivational states were induced by performance feedback after each trial. In the cognitive activation condition, participants memorised the word “good” or “bad” during the search task. The affective incongruency effect was replicated in the motivational condition, whereas an affective congruency effect obtained in the cognitive activation condition. These findings support an explanation of affective incongruency effects in terms of automatic counter-regulation that is motivational in nature. (shrink)

In diesem Buch erscheint Kants Moralphilosophie in neuem Licht. Kants Bestimmung und Begründung des Moralprinzips wird gegen das Gros der bisherigen Forschung als konsistente Argumentation auf hohem Niveau aufgeschlüsselt. Das gut lesbare Buch klärt die Grundbegriffe von Kants Moralphilosophie und lässt sich als Kommentar zu deren als besonders schwierig empfundenen Teilen benutzen.

The article critically assesses Ulrich Beck’s body of work and its importance for contemporary sociology. It demonstrates that Beck’s elaboration of his original theory of the ‘risk society’ into a theory of the ‘world risk society’, ‘cosmopolitanism’ and ‘metamorphosis’ involved several key theoretical innovations. Firstly, Beck adjusted his notion of risk to include the threat of international terrorism in his diagnosis of the risk society. Secondly, he introduced a distinction between ‘cosmopolitanism’ and ‘cosmopolitization’ in order to capture the specificity of (...) contemporary social change. Thirdly and most recently, Beck outlined a theory of ‘the metamorphosis of the world’ which marks an important shift of emphasis from ‘the negative side effects of goods’ to ‘the positive side effects of bads’. In conclusion, the article identifies a number of theoretical ambiguities and unresolved questions in Beck’s theory. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pathogen led to a fast expanding pandemic because it proved lethal in certain populations but could be transmitted by persons who appeared healthy. As a result, researchers came under unprecedented time pressure to develop a vaccine. This case study focuses on the first COVID-19 vaccine, which was approved for use in humans, known as Comirnaty, the BioNTech-Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine or Vaccine BNT162b2. With the benefit of hindsight, we show how close collaboration with regulators and trust-based decisions meant that (...) the race for a COVID-19 vaccine was won without purposefully infecting healthy participants with an infectious agent that can cause severe illness or death and for which no rescue therapy had existed. (shrink)

The Flusser-Quellen was originally conceived as the first volume of Andreas Müller-Pohle’s Flusser Editions, which should have been published by European Photography in 1996/1997. Klaus Sanders continued working on the text until 2002. The final revised edition, with a new foreword by Daniel Irrgang, has now finally been made accessible on-line by the Vilém Flusser Archive in Berlin.

The author introduces a normative conception of coherence, derived from a pragmatic interpretation of the application of norms to concrete cases. A distinction is made between the justification of a norm and its application. In the case of moral norms, justification and application can be analysed as two different discursive procedures which give rise to different aspects of the principle of impartiality. Impartial justification requires a procedure by which all interests concerned are taken into account whereas impartial application requires a (...) procedure where all features of a situation are considered. The complete description of a concrete case makes necessary a coherent interpretation of all the valid norms which are prima facie applicable. This requirement of an ideal coherent system of norms is restricted to interpretive “paradigms” in the case of legal norms, because it is necessary to produce singular judgments under the restrictive conditions of scarce time and incomplete knowledge. (shrink)

Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag analysiert auf der Basis theoretischer Überlegungen sowie empirischer Ergebnisse Möglichkeiten und Grenzen einer „interkulturellen Öffnung“ von Sportvereinen, worunter Strukturanpassungen verstanden werden, die auf die Inklusion und Integration von Personen mit Migrationshintergrund zielen. Es wird gezeigt, inwiefern eine nachhaltige interkulturelle Öffnung der Vereine von der programmatischen Anbindung an den Vereinszweck, von der kontinuierlichen Behandlung in den Kommunikationswegen, von spezifischen Personalentscheidungen und der Kompatibilität mit der Organisationskultur abhängig ist.

This book provides insight into the work of Oswald Spengler (1880-1936), one of the most prophetic minds of the 20th century, whose dire historical predictions - world wars, ecological disasters, gigantic cities with unrestrained urban sprawl, increasing race conflicts, failure of nerve among the ruling elites, and rapid decline of cultural norms - have more than passed the test of time. Besides focusing on Spengler the prophet and the controversies which surrounded his name in the 1920s, this book also emphasizes (...) Spengler's pioneering role in the development of a comparative study of cultures based on biological principles. (shrink)

Molecules have more or less symmetric and complex structures which can be defined in the mathematical framework of topology, group theory, dynamical systems theory, and quantum mechanics. But symmetry and complexity are by no means only theoretical concepts of research. Modern computer aided visualizations show real forms of matter which nevertheless depend on the technical standards of observation, computation, and representation. Furthermore, symmetry and complexity are fundamental interdisciplinary concepts of research inspiring the natural sciences since the antiquity.

In this paper the author criticizes the way Robert Alexy reconstructs the relationship between legal and practical reasoning. The core of Alexy's argumentation (Alexy 1978) is considered the claim that legal argumentation is a “special case” of general practical discourse. In order to question this claim, the author analyzes three different types of argument: (1) that legal reasoning is needed by general practical discourse itself, (2) that there are similarities between legal argumentation and general practical discourse, (3) that there is (...) a correspondence between certain types of argument in general practical discourse and in legal argumentation.**. (shrink)

Based on a theoretical model of the mood-cognition interface, the prediction is derived and tested empirically that positive mood enhances constructive memory biases. After reading an ambiguous personality description, participants received a positive or negative mood treatment employing different films. Within each mood group, half of the participants were then questioned about the applicability of either desirable or undesirable personality traits to the target person. This questioning treatment was predicted to bias subsequent impression judgements in the evaluative direction of the (...) questioned attributes. As earlier research had shown that such a bias is stronger for negative than positive attributes (presumably because of the higher diagnosticity of negative attributes), a non-trivial test of the sup posed mood effect was possible. Positive mood should enhance constructive effects, but this should be most apparent for negative attributes. The empirical findings lend support to these predictions. Positive mood subjects' impression judgements were biased by the prior questioning even when they did not find the questioned attributes to be particularly applicable to the target person. By contrast, negative mood subjects' judgements were more consistent with their responses to the prior questioning and did not exhibit a constructive bias. (shrink)

In the age of globalization, economic growth and the welfare of nations decisively depend on basic innovations. Therefore, education and knowledge is an important advantage of competition in highly developed countries with high standards of salaries, but raw material shortage. In the twenty-first century, innovations will arise from problem-oriented research, crossing over traditional faculties and disciplines. Therefore, we need platforms of interdisciplinary dialogue to choose transdisciplinary problems and to cluster new portfolios of technologies. The clusters of research during the excellence (...) initiative at German universities are examples of converging sciences. The integration of natural and engineering sciences as well as medicine can only be realized if the research training programs generate a considerable added value in terms of multidisciplinary experience, international networking, scientific and entrepreneurial know-how, and personality development. The Carl von Linde-Academy is presented as an example of an interdisciplinary center of research and teaching at the Technical University of Munich. (shrink)

In his fifth eclogue Candidus the Neo-latin poet Baptista Mantuanus, known in the Renaissance as the “second Virgil”, deals with the poverty of writers and the stinginess of patrons. The dialogue between the sincere-minded poet Candidus, who is frustrated by his hopeless situation, and the rich Silvanus, who gives only empty promises of help, turns out, however, to be futile. As can be demonstrated by the quotations taken mainly from the Roman satirists, Mantuanus makes use of the classical texts as (...) far as they serve his purpose and explicitly displays a subtle view of his various sources. Quoting from classical literature he often compares Candidus, his alter ego, with the victims of Horace, Juvenal and Persius, and frequently transforms the positive aspect of the original into its contrary. This technique emphasizes the needy poet’s self-ironical attitude confirmed by his exaggerated complaints describing his calamity. That is why Candidus appears to be a self-pitying and self-centered character, while, on the other hand, Silvanus represents the specimen of a miser giving nothing but flimsy promises, with the result that the dialogue remains stagnant and ultimately ineffective. (shrink)

There are reasons to endorse Krueger & Funder's (K&F's) critique, but also to disagree with their diagnosis. A “problem-seeking approach” is hardly the cause of imbalance and lack of theoretical integration. Precommitted, ideological theories afford a more appropriate explanation.

The meaning of optimality and economy in phylogenetics and evolutionary biology is discussed.It can be shown that the prevailing concepts of optimality and economy are equivocal as they are not based on strict theoretical positions and as they have a variable meaning in different theoretical contexts. The ideas of optimality and economy can be considered to be identical with the expectation of a relatively simple order in a particular field of study. Although there exists no way of inferring one or (...) several methods of solving scientific problems from the presupposed idea of economy and optimality, a lack of motivation for scientific investigations would result if the concepts of economy and optimality in nature were dropped. (shrink)

In this article, I try to show that the question of what the “first proposition” in Groundwork I is can be answered by textual evidence. At the end of paragraph 15 of GMS I, Kant recapitulates the “first proposition”. It is: “Eine Handlung aus Pflicht sondert den Einfluss der Neigung ganz ab.“ (“An action from duty puts aside entirely the influence of inclination.”). It is also shown that this “proposition” summarizes an important result of Kant’s argument in the preceding paragraphs (...) 8–13 and is presupposed by the “second proposition” and by Kant’s whole argument in the paragraphs 14 and 15, which he recapitulates in the last sentence of paragraph 15. (shrink)

FinanzethikFinanzethik wurde und wird, besonders im englischsprachigen Raum, als Teil der UnternehmensethikUnternehmensethik(business ethics) verstanden. Als solche richtet sie sich vor allem an individuelle Akteure in Finanzinstitutionen und auf den Finanzmärkten (z. B. Manager, Berater, Rechnungsprüfer, Investoren) und betont etwa Pflichten der Ehrlichkeit, Treue und zukunftsgerichteten Verantwortung. Diese (weitgehend isolierte) individual- oder mikroethische Perspektive wird, nicht zuletzt vor dem Hintergrund der im deutschsprachigen Raum vorherrschenden Tradition einer die Wirtschaft insgesamt in den Blick nehmenden WirtschaftsethikWirtschaftsethik und der Erfahrungen der Finanzkrise, zunehmend als (...) unzureichend angesehen. (shrink)

Nichts anderes meint die romantische Ironie, als das Spiel des Lebens, das ein Widerspiel der Welt ist, auch wirklich als Spiel zu nehmen und darzustellen, aber: »Darstellung ist Sache der Kunst« und »Darstellen kann nur der Mensch.« So avanciert in der ästhetisch gedeuteten Tathandlung das allein zur Darstellung befähigte Bewußtsein zum »complementum existentiae« der äußeren Welt, indem es Darstellungen einer Welt hervorbringt, die nur in den Darstellungen ihre vielfältige Wirklichkeit oder wirkliche Vielfalt zum Dasein bringt. Jenseits und vorgängig dieser Darstellungen (...) liegt das Nichts der Möglichkeiten zur unendlichen Fülle, das Chaos, aus dem der Verstand diese eine unendliche Welt von Welten bildet. Aus dem Zusammenspiel von Chaos als der Grundlage aller Natur, also auch der menschlichen, in der es sich in der »schönen Verwirrung der Fantasie« manifestiert, und Verstand, der ebenso auch als natürlicher, im Sinne von Energie, aufzufassen ist, entspringt erst die eine Welt in der Unendlichkeit ihrer verdichteten Darstellungen. Diese Strukturierungsleistung aber obliegt der Poesie, eine Aufgabe, die sie wiederum mit der Natur selbst verbindet. Dieses mit bedenkend wird sich die Poesie nicht nur ihrer eigenen Voraussetzungen bewußt, sondern sie wird diese in ihr Produkt aufnehmen. Sie wird »Transzendentalpoesie« oder »progressive Universalpoesie«, deren eigentliches Wesen darin besteht, nie vollendet werden zu können, deren Unvollendung eben die Unvollendung der Welt darstellt. (shrink)

Ziel des Aufsatzes ist der Nachweis, daß dem amerikanischen Philosophen Alan Gewirth die Begründung der normativen Ethik gelungen ist. Damit wird der herrschenden Auffassung widersprochen, daß der Ansatz von Gewirth gröbste Fehler enthält und kaum der Beachtung wert ist. Im Zentrum der Rekonstruktion des Ansatzes steht die Behandlung des umstrittensten Punktes - der Übergang von Werturteilen zu Rechtsansprüchen des Handelnden. Die wesentlichen Rekonstruktionsschritte werden in Auseinandersetzung mit Franz von Kutscheras Kritik am Ansatz von Gewirth entfaltet. Aus der spezifischen - von (...) den Kritikern meist völlig vernachlässigten - Methode des Begründungsargumentes werden Rückschlüsse auf den Status der Moral gezogen: Moralische Verbindlichkeiten sind nicht etwas, was außerhalb von Handlungsfähigen existiert. Vielmehr kommt das moralische Sollen durch und zwischen Handlungsfähigen zur Existenz. Darin ist wohl auch der Grund zu sehen, daß das moralische Sollen streng begründbar ist. (shrink)

I propose that a dishonest signaling system can be evolutionarily stable in eusocial animal societies if the amount of dishonesty is balanced by the chance of non-reproductive workers to advance to the reproductive caste in the future. I express this trade-off in a modified form of Hamilton’s rule, where I distinguish between the real and perceived cost of an altruistic act, and between the real and perceived genetic relatedness between colony members. Furthermore, I elaborate how the vertebrate neuromodulator oxytocin could (...) serve as an internal representation of the perceived cost of an altruistic act and of perceived relatedness. Behavioral and receptor localization data support this hypothesis. The encoding of cost and relatedness by oxytocin is likely integrated with a number of other functions related to social bonding. I conclude with a discussion of honesty in signaling, an outline of testable consequences of this hypothesis, and a comparison between vertebrate and insect eusociality. (shrink)