Angesichts der enormen Entwicklungen in der Technik zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts, insbesondere angesichts der »totalen Mobilmachung«, die man im Ersten Weltkrieg zu beobachten und zu erfahren glaubte, entstand in den 1920er und 1930er Jahren ein Diskurs über die Technik, in dem das ›Allesumfassende‹ und ›Allesvereinnahmende‹, also ›Totalisierende‹ der Maschinerien zum Thema gemacht wurde. So fragte sich Hans Freyer 1929 wie es sein konnte, dass »ein System von bloßen Mitteln derart schicksalsbestimmend, menschenverwandelnd, geschichtsbildend wirken kann«. Karl Jaspers wiederum beschrieb die (...) »globale« Dimension, die die Technik seiner Einschätzung nach angenommen hatte, und sprach 1931 in seinem Essay Die geistige Situation der Zeit von der »Herrschaft des Apparats« und sogar von einem »Riesenapparat«, der den einzelnen Menschen überformen würde, insbesondere durch eine normierende Massenkultur, die das tägliche Leben der Menschen grundlegend ändern würde. (shrink)

Learning to argue in a computer-mediated and structured fashion is investigated in this research. A study was conducted to compare dyads that were scripted in their computer-mediated collaboration with dyads that were not scripted. A process analysis of the chats of the dyads showed that the scripted experimental group used significantly more words, engaged in significantly more broadening and deepening of the discussion, and appeared to engage in more critical and objective argumentation than the non-scripted control group.

This paper uses a schema for infinite regress arguments to provide a solution to the problem of the infinite regress of justification. The solution turns on the falsity of two claims: that a belief is justified only if some belief is a reason for it, and that the reason relation is transitive.

Die Rede vom Postfaktischen bestimmt die aktuelle Diskussion zur vermeintlichen Objektivität der Berichterstattung audiovisueller Massenmedien. Eine Auseinandersetzung mit den Problemen, die durch das Postfaktische aufgeworfen werden, ist jedoch nicht neu, sondern bereits auf vielfältige Weise in klassischen und aktuellen Theorien des Dokumentarfilms diskutiert worden. Der Artikel plädiert dafür, den Begriff des Postfaktischen unter Hinzuziehung dieser Theorien (und auch filmischer Produktionen) von Vertov, Grierson, Balàzs, Buñuel und Niney fruchtbar zu machen. The talk of post-truth dominates the current discussion concerning the alleged (...) objectivity of news-coverage via audio-visual mass media. An examination of the problems raised by post-truth, however, is nothing new but rather has been discussed in many ways by traditional and contemporary documentary film-theories. This article makes a case for revitalizing the term of post-truth with the help of those theories (as well as cinematic productions) by Vertov, Grierson, Balàzs, Buñuel and Niney. (shrink)

Der Sammelband nimmt seinen Ausgang in einer der prominentesten und lebendigsten Debatten inner-halb der neueren Politischen Theorie, die seit uber einer Dekade intensiv auch in der deutschsprachigen Politischen Theorie gefuhrt wird. Im Zentrum der Diskussion steht die Unterscheidung von Politik und Politischem, in deren Licht die Beitrage des Bandes Fragen der radikalen Demokratie, dem Widerstandigen des Politischen und den Rezeptionslinien dieser wichtigen Debatte nachspuren. Mit Beitragen von Werner Friedrichs, Mareike Gebhardt, Anastasoiya Kasko, Oliver Marchart, Martin Nonhoff, Hagen Scholzel, Karsten (...) Schubert, Manon Westphal und Markus Wolf. (shrink)

Mein Beitrag behandelt zentrale Probleme der Methodologie der Textinterpretation im Lichte der neueren Erkenntnis- und Wissenschaftstheorie. Nach Vorbemerkungen zum Begriff der Interpretation wende ich mich den Methoden der Bildung und kritischen Prüfung von Interpretationshypothesen zu. Wie ist das Verhältnis von Daten und Hypothesen im Falle der Textinterpretation? Wie können Interpretationshypothesen epistemisch gerechtfertigt bzw. gestützt werden? Zur Beantwortung dieser Fragen untersuche ich die Anwendung der Hypothetisch-Deduktiven Methode und der Methode des Schlusses auf die beste Erklärung auf die Textinterpretation. Der Vergleich zeigt, (...) dass die Methode des Schlusses auf die beste Erklärung vorzuziehen ist. (shrink)

Meister Eckhart is known for having developed a sophisticated form of inclusivist Christian universalism in the late Middle Ages. This universalism arose from the particular “globalizing” contexts of his times, for which there are real parallels in our own day. The author argues that in key respects, Eckhart's ethical universalism shows strong affinities with Confucian principles, and can be informed by these as set out historically by Xinzhong Yao and in a contemporary setting by Tu Weiming. In the conclusion, the (...) author sketches the possible influence of Confucianism on a future Christianity, in the light of the Eckhartian universalist inheritance. (shrink)

Robert Elsie ist derzeit einer der profiliertesten und vielseitigsten Albanienkenner. Dem an griechischer Kultur interessierten Leser wird seine Übersetzung der Gedichte von Konstantin Kavafis bekannt sein; seine albanologischen Monographien, die dem Byzantinisten wohl weniger vertraut sind (besonders Dictionary of Albanian Literature. Westport-New York-London 1986; History of Albanian Literature. 2 Bde. Boulder-New York 1995; Handbuch zur albanischen Volkskultur. Wiesbaden 2002), zählen zu den Standardwerken der Balkankunde. Elsie interessiert sich epochenübergreifend für albanische Kultur. Neben seiner fachwissenschaftlichen Tätigkeit hat er zahlreiche Übersetzungen albanischer (...) Literatur vorgelegt; und in den Rahmen seiner Übersetzungen von Albanica ist auch der zu besprechende Band zu stellen. Der Titel „Frühes Albanien“ ist für den mit der Epocheneinteilung in der balkanischen Volksgeschichte weniger Vertrauten auf den ersten Blick irreführend, umspannen die von Elsie vorgelegten Quellen doch den Zeitraum vom 11. bis an das Ende des 17. Jahrhunderts. Die Diskussion, wann in der Geschichte des albanischen Volkes das Mittelalter endet, wird offen und kontrovers geführt. Elsie setzt es an die Wende zum 18. Jahrhundert; andere Gelehrte sehen erst in den Anfängen einer Nationalbewegung im zweiten Drittel des 19. Jahrhunderts das Anbrechen einer neuen Epoche. (shrink)

No longer is pregnancy a repulsive or shameful condition in Hollywood films, but an attractive attribute, often enhancing the romantic or comedic storyline of a female character. Kelly Oliver investigates this curious shift and its reflection of changing attitudes toward women's roles in reproduction and the family. Not all representations signify progress. Oliver finds that in many pregnancy films, our anxieties over modern reproductive practices and technologies are made manifest, and in some cases perpetuate conventions curtailing women's freedom. (...) Reading such films as _Where the Heart Is_ (2000), _Riding in Cars with Boys_ (2001), _Palindromes_ (2004), _Saved!_ (2004), _Quinceañera_ (2006), _Children of Men_ (2006), _Knocked Up_ (2007), _Juno_ (2007), _Baby Mama_ (2008), _Away We Go_ (2009), _Precious_ (2009), _The Back-up Plan_ (2010), _Due Date_ (2010), and _Twilight: Breaking Dawn_ (2011), Oliver investigates pregnancy as a vehicle for romance, a political issue of "choice," a representation of the hosting of "others," a prism for fears of miscegenation, and a screen for modern technological anxieties. (shrink)

Occam’s razor directs us to adopt the simplest hypothesis consistent with the evidence. Learning theory provides a precise definition of the inductive simplicity of a hypothesis for a given learning problem. This definition specifies a learning method that implements an inductive version of Occam’s razor. As a case study, we apply Occam’s inductive razor to causal learning. We consider two causal learning problems: learning a causal graph structure that presents global causal connections among a set of domain variables, and learning (...) context-sensitive causal relationships that hold not globally, but only relative to a context. For causal graph learning, Occam’s inductive razor directs us to adopt the model that explains the observed correlations with a minimum number of direct causal connections. For expanding a causal graph structure to include context-sensitive relationships, Occam’s inductive razor directs us to adopt the expansion that explains the observed correlations with a minimum number of free parameters. This is equivalent to explaining the correlations with a minimum number of probabilistic logical rules. The paper provides a gentle introduction to the learning-theoretic definition of inductive simplicity and the application of Occam’s razor for causal learning. (shrink)

This is an entertaining and intelligent book on a subject we often have preconceptions about, which the author takes delight in showing to be false. It is an interesting blend of philosophy and social science, which is not an easy combination to get to work properly. Sometimes when it is not well done the reader gets the impression that a lot of half-digested facts are being thrown at her and a bit of theory is then used to try to vaguely (...) tie it all together. Here the facts work with the theory nicely, the detail of loneliness in different countries and communities gives us some idea of how to explore the notion conceptually, and deepens the account of loneliness as a complex idea. Svendsen is excellent on the... (shrink)

Society is transforming from the industrial era to an information based, network society. Thereis widespread consensus that due to this revolution in society, education needs to make aparadigm shift in order to stay relevant to the changing needs of society. Although thisparadigm shift is promoted widely in academic literature, it seems as if in practice there arestumbling blocks preventing higher education to make positive strides into a new directionwithin the South African context. This research highlights some of the hurdles that (...) OpenDistance Learning higher education in South Africa is experiencing and also suggests apossible way forward to overcome these obstacles through the implementation of selfdeterminedlearning. In order for heutagogy to be implemented successfully,student support is of the upmost importance both in the curriculum design and the actualteaching and presenting of courses. (shrink)

Averroes is the Latin name of Abu'l Walid ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Rushd (1126–1198 ce), who was born in Cordoba, Spain. He was a public official, serving as both royal physician and judge, but his political career was often difficult, and by the time of his death he had suffered banishment to North Africa. He is an outstanding representative of the great cultural achievements of Muslim Spain, and produced philosophical works which came to resonate through the West for many (...) centuries after his death. (shrink)

(1999). Time, Modernity, and Destructive Habits of Thought. Canadian Journal of Philosophy: Vol. 29, Supplementary Volume 25: Civilization and Oppression, pp. 127-145.

Over the past 20 years or so, a small but growing literature has emerged with the aim of modeling agents who are unaware of certain things. In this paper we compare two different approaches to modeling unawareness: the object-based approach of Board and Chung (Object-based unawareness: theory and applications. University of Minnesota, Mimeo, 2008) and the subjective-state-space approach of Heifetz et al. (J Econ Theory 130: 78-94,2006). In particular, we show that subjectivestate-space models (henceforth HMS structures) can be embedded within (...) object-based models (henceforth OBU structures), demonstrating that the latter are at least as expressive. As long as certain restrictions are imposed on the form of the OBU structure, the embedding can also go the other way. A generalization of HMS structures (relaxing the partitional properties of knowledge) gives us a full converse. (shrink)