The classical analysis of donkey sentences like (1.a,b) in Kamp (1981) and Heim (1982) assigns them truth conditions as given in (2.a). That is, they are treated as quantifications over farmer-donkey pairs. Partee (1984) and Kadmon (1987) have pointed out that the proper reading of (1.b), and a preferred reading of (1.a), is rather a quantification over farmers, as illustrated in (2.b).

In the logical, philosophical and linguistic literature, a number of theoretical frameworks have been proposed for the meaning of questions (see Ginzburg (1995), Groenendijk & Stokhof (1997) for recent overviews). I will concentrate on two general approaches that figured prominently in linguistic semantics, which I will call the proposition set approach and the structured meaning approach (sometimes called the “propositional” and the “categorial” or “functional” approach). I will show that the proposition set approach runs into three problems: It does not (...) always predict the right focus structure in answers, it is unable to distinguish between polarity (yes/no) and a certain type of alternative questions, and it does not allow to formulate an important condition for a type of multiple constituent questions. On the other hand, I will show that the main argument brought forward against the structured meaning framework, namely that it does not give us an elegant way to account for embedded questions, does not withstand closer scrutiny. In this I will take up an issue raised in von Stechow (1990), namely, that the greater expressive power of the structured meaning approach might be necessary for the proper treatment of semantic phenomena like question formation and focusation. (shrink)

This paper discusses historical-critical thought to address the problems of restoration and preservation of tape music, proposing viable solutions to the matter of digitizing the historically valuable data that exists on and is represented by magnetic tapes. A detailed program of research and restoration and some software for helping in creation of critical editions of the musical works are proposed. We also present some of the issues and controversies that must be considered and approaches we have applied in the preservation (...) of tape music, highlighting how these interpretations can impact later performances of these tape documents. Fundamentally, we argue that the act of tape music restoration has a parallel with the interpretation of the “Urtext score” in the performance of music from the Common Practice Era. (shrink)

A tour de force examination of the contemporary ideological landscape by one of the world's leading analysts of globalization.

This influence of accent has been taken as evidence that adverbial quantification is focus sensitive (cf. Rooth (1985)) or presupposition sensitive (cf. von Fintel (1994), Rooth (1995)). I will discuss a problem that has been identified by von Fintel and Rooth, the requantifiation problem. Roughly stated, standard accounts of indefinites as NPs that introduce new discourse referents are at odds with standard accounts of the focus sensitivity or presupposition sensitivity of (1), which force us to assume that indefinites may pick (...) up existing discourse referents and “requantify” over them. I will argue for a special class of indefinites that pick up existing discourse referents, which I will call non-novel indefinites, to explain the nature.. (shrink)

The critique of capitalism is the bedrock on which rests the reputation of Frankfurt School critical theory. Though critical theory has often been heralded – or criticized and rejected – as a reformulation of Marxian theory for our times, its relation with the critique of political economy, and in particular the economic treatises, has barely been studied. Friedrich Pollock, who was Max Horkheimer’s lifelong friend and close associate at the Institute for Social Research, was responsible for all administrative and financial (...) questions, but he wrote few theoretical essays and Wiggershaus calls him ‘the last unknown member of the Frankfurt School’. Nevertheless this article asks whether not only has his influence on early critical theory been sorely underestimated, but also his impact on the late philosophies of Horkheimer, Adorno and Marcuse. (shrink)

1. Bd. Die Kategorie des Seinszusammenhanges und die Einheit des Seins.

One of the difficult areas for persons learning a foreign language is to grasp the range of usages of syntactic patterns that exist in the foreign language. It is not sufficient to learn how passive formation works, or how pre- or postpositional phrases are constructed, or how perfect tenses are expressed. One also has to learn which verbs can passivize at all, which verbs go with which pre- or postpositions, and, in case perfect tenses are expressed, as in a number (...) of European languages, with different auxiliaries like ‘have’ and ‘be’, which verb needs which auxiliary. For English, Levin (1993) distinguishes no less than 57 verb classes, most of them with a number of subclasses, that show distinct syntactic behavior. (shrink)

(2) Peter wollte Potsdam nicht verlassen bevor das Projekt in ruhigem Fahrwasser war. There are other well-known examples of non-interpreted negation, viz. cases of so-called negative concord in Slavic and Romance languages, but also in dialects of German and English. But arguably, in those cases the “superfluous” negation has to be present for grammatical reasons, which is not the case here. I will show that the negation is in fact interpreted, and that, due to a complex interplay of semantic and (...) pragmatic factors, we do get truth conditions for the two sentences that are not quite identical, but very similar. (shrink)

The ways in which languages express primary sense qualities have been investigated quite unevenly, which is due to the fact that there are great differences in how the senses are linguistically represented, which in turn reflects differences in these sense qualities themselves and their role in cognition.

Karl Popper hat sich in vielen Schriften immer wieder mit der Quantenmechanik auseinandergesetzt. Eine Reihe dieser Arbeiten sind in physikalischen Zeitschriften erschienen und viele Physiker nahmen darauf Bezug. Selbst wenn Popper Experimente vorschlug, ging es ihm aber nicht um die Weiterentwicklung der Physik, sondern um die Interpretation der Quantentheorie, d. h. um methodologische, erkenntnistheoretische und metaphysische Fragen, die durch sie aufgeworfen werden.Über solche Interpretationsfragen gab es von Anfang an unterschiedliche Auffassungen, die vor allem durch die sog. Bohr-Einstein-Debatte bekannt geworden sind. (...) In dieser Auseinandersetzung hat sich Karl Popper mit seiner erkenntnistheoretischen Kritik an der Kopenhagener Interpretation auf die Seite Einsteins gestellt, eine Teilcheninterpretation der Quantenobjekte favorisiert und in diesem Zusammenhang seine Propensitätsinterpretation der Wahrscheinlichkeit entwickelt.Der Beitrag diskutiert Poppers Ideen zur Quantentheorie, vor allem die, die mit Einsteins Themen zu tun haben. Ausgespart bleiben Poppers Überlegungen zur Quantenlogik und zur Nicht-Lokalität der Quantentheorie, wie sie bei verschränkten Zuständen sichtbar wird. Er untersucht die philosophischen Motive für Poppers Kritik an der damaligen Standardauffassung und die Bedeutung, die Albert Einstein für die Entwicklung von Poppers eigener Position hatte. In einem weiteren Schritt wird skizziert, wie Poppers Vorschläge aus der Sicht der gegenwärtigen Philosophie der Physik bewertet werden. Dabei zeigt sich, dass Poppers spezielle physikalische Vorschläge zur Quantenmechanik und ihrer Interpretation heute eher kritisch gesehen werden, seine philosophischen Motive dagegen in neueren Entwicklungen der Interpretationsdebatte weitgehend erfüllt worden sind, wenn auch auf anderen Wegen als er dachte. (shrink)

Summary In this report on the present state of the discussion about the interpretation of quantum mechanics an attempt is made to provide an idea of the philosophical relevance of the foundations of physics. A simplified model of the measuring process is given which shows the difficulties in the interpretation of quantum mechanics. It is argued against Bohr's solution (also in a version of H. Putnam). Two examples show possible philosophical consequences of quantum mechanics: The variety of quantum logics challenges (...) the foundations of logic, the paradox of Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen (with Bell's inequality) may be interpreted along the lines of holism. Against alleged refutations of realism by means of quantum mechanics, a realist standpoint is maintained. A proper interpretation of quantum mechanics from an epistemological point of view seems still to be lacking. (shrink)

Arguing that today’s burgeoning globalization literature still neglects the investigation of powerful subjective dynamics of growing social interconnectivity, this article explores how various ideological articulations of globalization have shaped its material designs and in­stantiations. The thickening of global consciousness can be conceptualized along the three interrelated dimensions or layers of ideology, imaginary, and ontology. Each of these three layers of subjective globalization is constituted in practice at an ever-greater generality, durability, and depth. Normative contestations continue, but they tend to have (...) a common global point of reference—albeit not to the exclusion of the national. (shrink)

The essential task of the philosophy of style is to uncover the irreducibility of the singular to any kind of universal, static structure or metalinguistic code. Style is not only a surplus element that exceeds propositional meaning, but also a clue of the ineradicable contingency of “intersubjective”‐communicational relationships. The receiver must respect the unique individuality of the sender's style as what demonstrates the cognitive inexhaustibility of the world. Consequently, philosophy can no longer regard literature as foreign and incorrigible by asserting (...) a radical difference of genre and thereby reserving truth exclusively for itself. Rather, I go on to argue, the difference is merely one of quantity. The picture of the world drawn by literature is simply fuller and richer than any comparatively monochromatic system of philosophical propositions. However, within the history of philosophy, there have been instances when the philosophical import of literature has been accorded its due. One example is the dialogical approach of early German Romanticism. The other example is a writer most frequently considered the purest thinker of philosophical sense and meaning – namely, Ludwig Wittgenstein. I conclude by reading Wittgenstein as a philosopher concerned, above all, with the ineffable that style reveals. (shrink)

Given the prevalence of debilitating anxiety associated with music performance, there is a need for rapid, pinpointed assessment of the extent to which an individual experiences music performance anxiety. A short, five item scale, the Mazzarolo Music Performance Anxiety Scale, was developed to capture retrospective self-reported estimates of the frequency, intensity and aversion tendency associated with performing music. 102 musicians completed the scale, as well as an established MPA inventory. The M-MPAS was found to be internally reliable with all items (...) being statistically relevant to the overall scale. Furthermore, the M-MPAS was correlated with the relevant factors of an established MPA measure, suggesting that the new scale exhibited good construct validity. M-MPAS is easy to score, with a scale range of 0–30. A score of 11 or above is suggested as the range in which a diagnosis of potential high MPA can be made, but more research into this and the psychometric robustness of the scale is called for. Nevertheless, the reliability and validity demonstrated in the present study, along with the brevity of the M-MPAS suggest that the newly proposed scale may offer considerable triaging benefits for pinpointed assessment of the extent to which an individual experiences MPA. (shrink)

Kant’s solution for the problem of freedom of the will rests on his transcendental idealism and its differentiation of appearances and things in themselves. Human beings, with their bodies and observable inner and outer activities, are objects of perception (empirical intuition) and therefore appearances. These are only the appearances of their noumenal selves. Human beings are determined by laws of nature in all their perceivable alterations which include all their actions, but their noumenal selves, not being in time, are not (...) determined by the necessity of causal laws of nature, but can be determined by the moral law of their pure practical reason which they give to themselves. The actions of the will, observable volitions and external actions, can therefore, at the same time, be under the necessitating law of nature, i.e. be unfree, and, as appearances of the self-determination of their noumenal will (by fulfilling the demands of the moral law), be free. Two professors of Jena University, Ulrich and Schmid, accept part of Kant’s transcendental idealism but contend that the many transgressions of the moral law in human acting must have their noumenal reason in the agent’s intelligible character or in the intelligible substrate of nature. This theory is called “intelligible fatalism”. (shrink)

Se aborda la idea de razón pública, atendiendo en particular a su concomitante ideal de razonabilidad. Se expone la continuidad de esta noción desde John Locke a John Rawls, destacando su vínculo con la religiosidad doctrinalmente minimalista de la tradición erasmista. Se cuestiona que, dado tal vínculo, esta ida pueda servir de criterio para evaluar la presencia de otras voces religiosas en la vida pública. The article addresses the idea of public reason, treating in particular its concomitant ideal of reasonableness. (...) It exposes the continuity of this notion from John Locke to John Rawls, highlighting its connection to the minimalist doctrinal religiosity of the Erasmist tradition. It questions if this idea can serve as criteria to evaluate the presence of other religious voices in public life, given this connection. (shrink)

Desde hace unas décadas se ha manifestado un movimiento en la literatura relevante que busca la superación de la tolerancia, especialmente en casos como el de la diversidad sexual y otras diferencias atributivas. La idea subyacente es que la tolerancia es incompatible con el respeto que nos debemos como iguales en una democracia. En este artículo argumentamos que la noción de respeto que motiva tal movimiento es inadecuada políticamente, dados los profundos desacuerdos de nuestras sociedades. En su lugar proponemos una (...) alternativa que denominamos “respeto institucional”, que privilegia las posibilidades efectivas de participación política. (shrink)

Rhetoric as a persuasive technique, school subject and social practice has determined our literary and social linguistic life since the 5th century BC. Its history is the history of the production of speech under changing social conditions. Rhetoric has managed to re-establish itself as an academic subject at German universities since the 1960s, and today, in our advanced media society, it plays an outstanding role in advertising, sales and the social technology of management. - The Rhetoric Yearbook summarises rhetoric research (...) in Germany and presents new publications in an extended review section. A current bibliography provides information on all German-language publications related to rhetoric.Contributions are published in English, French and German. (shrink)

We focus on collaborative activities that engage computer graphics designers and social scientists in systems design processes. Our conceptual symmetrical account of technology design and theory development is elaborated as a mode of mutual engagement occurring in an interdisciplinary trading zone, where neither discipline is placed at the service of the other and nor do disciplinary boundaries dissolve. To this end, we draw on analyses of mutual engagements between computer and social scientists stemming from the fields of computer-supported cooperative work, (...) human−computer interaction, and science and technology studies. We especially build on theoretical work in STS concerning information technology in health care and extend recent contributions from STS with respect to the modes of engagement and trading zones between computer and social sciences. We conceive participative digital systems design as a form of inquiry for the analysis of cooperative work settings, particularly when social science becomes part of design processes. We illustrate our conceptual approach using data from an interdisciplinary project involving computer graphics designers, sociologists, and neurosurgeons with the aim of developing patient-centered visualizations for clinical cooperation on a hospital ward. (shrink)

Nietzsche hat keine politische Theorie vorgelegt und dennoch ganz grundlegende, auch heute noch herausfordernde Fragen zu Wesen und Wert des Politischen gestellt. Unter den Gesichtspunkten von Psychologie und Moral, Kultursteigerung und Zukunftsgestaltung hat er das Politische umgedacht und umgewertet. Ziel des Bandes ist, diese Umwertungen neu zu durchdenken. Dabei steht zunächst das Verhältnis von Nietzsches Philosophie zu den wesentlichen Fragen der Politik – Herrschaft, Gewalt, Freiheit, Selbstbestimmung und Gerechtigkeit – im Vordergrund. Welche Regeln bzw. Normen und welche Arten von Gemeinschaft (...) sind aus seinem Denken ableitbar? Nietzsches Anti-Politik wird im Zeichen souveräner Individualität und als Gegen-Politik diskutiert, seine „große Politik" im Licht jüngerer Erfahrungen (Trump etc.) hinterfragt. Wie gehen wir mit Nietzsches polemischem Elitismus um, wie mit der Selbstermächtigung von Individuen, die in heutigen westlichen Gesellschaften (scheinbar) so wichtig sind? Die hier versammelten Beiträge erfassen Nietzsches politische Perspektiven in all ihrer Brisanz und Radikalität, aber auch mit der nötigen Sorgfalt und in textnaher Lektüre. (shrink)