The Special Issue is started with the observation that the tension of mind and society, i.e. cognitive and sociological/cultural dimensions in knowledge production and innovation, is a well-known topic of academic discourse in Science and Technology Studies. The introduction mentions some historical hallmarks of the involved perspectives and discussions to outline the background of the Special Issue. The purpose of its contributions, which are briefly presented at the end of the introduction, is to review this long-existing tension of cognitive and (...) cultural dimensions in knowledge production and innovation in the light of the cognitive and societal changes that have just begun and will have a huge impact in the future. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft Jahrgang: 23 Heft: 1 Seiten: 188-206.

Relational spaces are variable patterns which establish an order of the coexisting. In them, forces of dispersion come into effect that form positional relationships and neighborhoods. In line with the philosophical concept of relational space, the paper sketches a media ecology of coexistence, of the simultaneous juxtaposition of the scattered, and envisages an ethics and aesthetics of distribution. Starting with Martin Heidegger's ontological postulate of an »original dispersion of existence« and its post-structuralist and philosophical critique, various concepts of relational spaces (...) and regimes of dispersion are discussed. German Relationale Räume sind veränderliche Gefüge, die eine Ordnung des Koexistierenden etablieren. In ihnen sind Kräfte der Streuung wirksam, die Lagebeziehungen und Nachbarschaften ausbilden. Der Beitrag entwirft ausgehend vom philosophischen Konzept des Relationsraums eine Medienökologie der Koexistenz, des gleichzeitigen Nebeneinanders des Zerstreuten, und zielt auf eine Ethik und Ästhetik der Verteilung. Ausgehend von Martin Heideggers fundamentalontologischer Setzung einer »ursprünglichen Streuung des Daseins« und deren poststrukturalistischen und philosophischen Kritik werden Konzepte variabler Relationsräume und Regime der Zerstreuung diskutiert. (shrink)

In response to cases that involve tiny probabilities of huge payoffs, some argue that we ought to discount small probabilities down to zero. However, this paper shows that doing so violates Independence and Continuity, and as a result of these violations, those who discount small probabilities can be exploited by money pumps. Various possible ways of avoiding exploitation will be discussed. This paper concludes that the money pump for Independence undermines the plausibility of discounting small probabilities. Much of the discussion (...) on Independence generalizes to other views that also violate Independence. (shrink)

The neutralization of contrasts in form or meaning that is sometimes observed in language production and comprehension is at odds with the classical view that language is a systematic one-to-one pairing of forms and meanings. This special issue is concerned with patterns of forms and meanings in language. The papers in this special issue arose from a series of workshops that were organized to explore variants of bidirectional Optimality Theory and Game Theory as models of the interplay between the speaker’s (...) and the hearer’s perspective. (shrink)

This paper deals with transcultural ethnic media, that is, ethnic media with at least two additional fundamental benefits: They provide space for and aim at different ethnic communities and connect them to the major society. Additionally, they include inter- and transcultural content and provide professional journalism. Content analyses with particular focus on the conveyed values as well as the perception of such a magazine ‒ biber, published in Vienna, Austria ‒ by traditional print media reveal that in reporting on issues (...) not covered by mainstream media, transcultural magazines promote counter-public spheres on the one hand. On the other hand, they offer the majority society insights into ethnic communities. Mainstream media report much more frequently about such a transcultural magazine than about ‘classic’ ethnic media, evaluate it positively and see it as an important contribution to the media landscape. Overall, transcultural media play an important role in gaining bridging social capital. (shrink)

A review of Karel Stibral’s Darwin & estetika.

Data from further human experiments touch four open questions in the target article. (1) Extinction of reward acquisition postulated by Depue & Collins's model could not be confirmed if correlating craving for, liking of, and satisfaction from smoking. (2) Intraindividual correspondence between responsivity to dopamine agonists and antagonists could likewise not be confirmed. (3) Nicotine craving and drug-induced hormone responses were not substantially correlated. (4) Low serotonin can be the cause and not just the moderator of dopaminergic sensitivity, and personality (...) correlates of low dopamine/low MAO (aggressive impulsive traits) can hardly be related to the positive emotion associated with dopaminergic activity. (shrink)

Sijilmassi et al. offer a cognitive account of historical myths, which they present as a cognitive technology designed to recruit coalitional support. We argue this account is incomplete, and that a comprehensive explanation of historical myths must include a central role for human emotions. In particular, emotion-driven narratives have the capacity to recruit coalitional support, which is critical to large-scale human cooperation and social cohesion.

In this publication we continue the study of fuzzy Peterson’s syllogisms. While in the previous publication we focused on verifying the validity of these syllogisms using the construction of formal proofs and semantic verification, in this publication we focus on verifying the validity of syllogisms using Peterson’s rules based on grades.

The article briefly introduces an academic debate between two different responses to the predicament of the human in the ecological crisis, namely the object-oriented ontology and the vitalist response to that approach. Based on that introduction, it argues for the need of a complementing analytical tool and sketches the contours of such a tool by suggesting an epistemological tactic for a decolonizing human distinctiveness. The article suggests an analytical maneuver to be used by scholars who aim at decolonizing nature from (...) human oppression, a tool that enables illumination and critical scrutiny of the epistemological role of the human as one stage toward destabilizing the notion of human distinctiveness. The article, thus, introduces an approach where human distinctiveness is not understood as a factual distinctiveness—not an essential difference between the human and the nonhuman world—but where human distinctiveness is critically viewed as a discursive role in theoretical work, a role that can be temporarily put to use by the scholar as a decolonizing epistemological tactic. In other words, human distinctiveness is here tactically used as a tool to critically scrutinize the idea of human distinctiveness rather than to safeguard it. (shrink)

Introduction Petra Storjohann This collective volume focuses on what have traditionally been termed the "para- digmatics" or "sense relations" of a lexical ...

The topic of this thesis is how we should treat tiny probabilities of vast value. This thesis consists of six independent papers. Chapter 1 discusses the idea that utilities are bounded. It shows that bounded decision theories prescribe prospects that are better for no one and worse for some if combined with an additive axiology. Chapter 2, in turn, points out that standard axiomatizations of Expected Utility Theory violate dominance in cases that involve possible states of zero probability. Chapters 3–6 (...) discuss the idea that we should ignore tiny probabilities in practical decision-making. Chapter 3 argues that discounting small probabilities solves the ‘Intrapersonal Addition Paradox’ and thus helps avoid the Repugnant Conclusion. Chapter 4 explores what the most plausible version of this view might look like and what problems the different versions have. Chapter 5 focuses on one type of problem, namely, money pumps. The Independence Money Pump, in particular, presents a difficult challenge for those who wish to discount small probabilities. Finally, Chapter 6 discusses the implications of discounting small probabilities for the value of the far future. (shrink)

German description: Wie wird das schlechthin Undarstellbare sinnlich darstellbar? Petra Bahr zeigt in ihren Studien zur historischen Semantik des Darstellungsbegriffs zwischen 1750 und 1800, dass diese Frage das 18.

Der erste der auf vier Bände angelegten Sichtungen der Bestimmung,Leben' stellt in chronologischer Folge wichtige Grundkonstellationen des Begriffsfeldes Leben von Aristoteles bis Schelling vor. Exemplarisch wird herausgearbeitet, wie in der europäischen Kulturgeschichte vom Leben geredet wurde, wann und weshalb der Lebensbegriff an Bedeutung gewann und warum die Rede vom Leben mit einer eigenen Konfliktgeschichte verbunden ist. Von besonderem Interesse sind dabei jene Diskussionen, die für christliche Traditionen direkt oder latent relevant wurden. Damit soll den Lebensdiskursen innerhalb der bioethischen Debatten ein (...) diese anregendes Gegengewicht gegeben werden. Denn um entscheiden zu können, was zum Wohl von Lebewesen mit Lebendem getan und gelassen werden sollte, dürfte hilfreich sein, zu klären, was genau gesteigert, geschützt, renaturalisiert, kultiviert oder in Frieden gelassen werden soll. Mit Beiträgen von:Petra Bahr, Christoph Ellsiepen, Matthias Freudenberg, Gerald Hartung, Christina Hoegen-Rohls, Tom Kleffmann, Dietrich Korsch, Christof Landmesser, Christoph Markschies, Peter McLaughlin, Jörn Müller, Hanns Nissing, Enno Rudolph, Stephan Schaede, Konrad Schmid, Christian Senkel, Joachim von Soosten, Philipp Stoellger. (shrink)

Die Sprache weiß, wovon sie spricht. Das zeigt sich im Kompositum "ef?μe ", von dem das deutsche "ephemer" abgeleitet wurde. Während das Präfix "epi" u.a. die Bedeutungen "darauf, während, bis zu" umfasst, bedeutet "hemära" nicht nur "Tag", sondern auch "Zeit" und "Leben". Das Ephemere spricht existenziell die Daseinsweise des Menschen an. Ephemeroi, Menschen, sind "Eintagswesen", "eines Schattens Traum". Ohne das Ephemere als Kennzeichen der Moderne und Postmoderne zu vernachlässigen, unter Berücksichtigung der Wechselwirkungen mit Medienumbrüchen und Künsten stehen Fragen nach der (...) Zeitlichkeit als Bedingung der Möglichkeit allen Existierens, aber auch nach den Weisen der Zeitigung von Zeit, die die konkrete Lebenszeit prägen, im Zentrum. Mit Beiträgen von: Gabriele Brandstetter, Danica Darkic, Martina Dobbe, Martin Dornberg, Hinderk M. Emmrich, Daniel Fetzner, Angela Melitopoulos, Petra Maria Meyer, Jürgen Partenheimer, Claus-Arthur Scheier, Michael Schirner, Annette Stahmer, Georg Christoph Tholen, Michael Wetzel, Martin Zenck. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Frühmittelalterliche Studien Jahrgang: 36 Heft: 2 Seiten: 403-415.

This paper advances a framework for modeling the component interactions between cognitive and social aspects of scientific creativity and technological innovation. Specifically, it aims to characterize Innovation Networks; those networks that involve the interplay of people, ideas and organizations to create new, technologically feasible, commercially-realizable products, processes and organizational structures. The tri-partite framework captures networks of ideas (Concept Level), people (Individual Level) and social structures (Social-Organizational Level) and the interactions between these levels. At the concept level, new ideas are the (...) nodes that are created and linked, kept open for further investigation or closed if solved by actors at the individual or organizational levels. At the individual level, the nodes are actors linked by shared worldviews (based on shared professional, educational, experiential backgrounds) who are the builders of the concept level. At the social-organizational level, the nodes are organizations linked by common efforts on a given project (e.g., a company–university collaboration) that by virtue of their intellectual property or rules of governance constrain the actions of individuals (at the Individual Level) or ideas (at the Concept Level). After describing this framework and its implications we paint a number of scenarios to flesh out how it can be applied. (shrink)

Background: A predictive genetic test for Huntington’s disease can be used before any symptoms are apparent, but there is only sparse knowledge about the long-term consequences of a positive test result. Such knowledge is important in order to gain a deeper understanding of families’ experiences. Objectives: The aim of the study was to describe a young couple’s long-term experiences and the consequences of a predictive test for Huntington’s disease. Research design: A descriptive case study design was used with a longitudinal (...) narrative life history approach. Participants and research context: The study was based on 18 interviews with a young couple, covering a period of 2.5 years; starting 6 months after the disclosure of the test results showing the woman to be a carrier of the gene causing Huntington’s disease. Ethical considerations: Even though the study was extremely sensitive, where potential harm constantly had to be balanced against the benefits, the couple had a strong wish to contribute to increased knowledge about people in their situation. The study was approved by the ethics committee. Findings: The results show that the long-term consequences were devastating for the family. This 3-year period was characterized by anxiety, repeated suicide attempts, financial difficulties and eventually divorce. Discussion: By offering a predictive test, the healthcare system has an ethical and moral responsibility. Once the test result is disclosed, the individual and the family cannot live without the knowledge it brings. Support is needed in a long-term perspective and should involve counselling concerning the families’ everyday life involving important decision-making, reorientation towards a new outlook of the future and the meaning of life. Conclusion: As health professionals, our ethical and moral responsibility thus embraces not only the phase in direct connection to the actual genetic test but also a commitment to provide support to help the family deal with the long-term consequences of the test. (shrink)

The essay examines the topology associated with the figurative semantics of the »outsider« – it is one of boundaries and exclusion or even exclusion. However, after a period of booming use of the pejorative term »outsider« (as well as the positively connoted figure of the »dropout«) in social philosophy, the use of these terms is waning. Likewise, the associated idea of the social as a large and homogeneous »interior (space)« seems to be fading. Socio-philosophical topologies of the present time have (...) become more complex – so the author’s thesis. Perhaps our models of the social are even no topologies at all, namely no more spatial figures. (shrink)

Die von Anselm von Canterbury in seinem Werk „Cur Deus homo" gestellte Frage nach dem Warum der Menschwerdung und des Kreuzestodes beschäftigte im Mittelalter auch Verfasser deutschsprachiger Dichtungen. Darüber ist bislang wenig bekannt. Die untersuchten Alanus-Rezeptionen, Kreuzesholzlegenden und jene Texte, die den Streit der vier Töchter Gottes behandeln, sind zwar völlig verschiedene Werke, sie legen aber ein ganz bestimmtes Muster zugrunde, mit dessen Hilfe sie einige Gedanken aus Anselms Satisfaktionslehre verarbeiten. Dadurch erreichen auch sie das Ziel, die Schwere der Sünde (...) und die Notwendigkeit der Erlösung aufzuzuzeigen. Sie kristallisieren heraus, daß die Errettung der Menschheit ausschließlich durch die Genugtuung vollzogen und diese nur durch einen Gottmenschen geleistet werden konnte. Die so vollbrachte Erlösungstat erscheint als Akt der göttlichen Barmherzigkeit, die in den literarischen Darstellungen vom Fall im Paradies bis zur Erlösung stets präsent ist.The question, which Anselm of Canterbury formulated in his publication „Cur Deus homo" why incarnation and the Cross-Death ist necessary, engaged in the Middle Ages also authors of german poetry. About that, little is known up to now. No doubt, the investigated reception of Alanus, the legend of the cross piece and those texts, which deal with the dispute of the four daughters of God are indeed different texts, yet they base upon a very certain pattern through which they work up conceptions of Anselms theory of satisfaction. By this adaptation they also achieve to point out the severity of sin and the necessity of salvation. They make evident that the salvation of mankind is exclusively fulfilled by satisfaction, whereby this could be soly accomplished by God incarnate. Beginning with the fall in paradise the fulfilled salvation is always evident in the poetic texts as an act of compassion by God. (shrink)

Analyses of household urban agriculture have demonstrated a wealth of personal, economic, social, moral or political uses for self-provisioned food, yet have often understood the practice itself as merely a production process. This ‘means-to-an-end’ perspective is especially pronounced in studies of locations undergoing economic hardship. Urban gardening in postsocialist Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union has been framed as an element of an informal economy, enabling household savings, access to informal networks and avoidance of industrial goods deemed (...) ethically dubious. In this article, I present evidence from participant observation and interviews with urban gardeners conducted in 2014–2015 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where urban agriculture proliferated during the European debt crisis that began in 2009. I interpret the material through an ecological perspective that focuses on labour in nature and highlights the interconnected, situated role of the gardener. My analysis of gardening styles, behaviours, attitudes and life-narratives of long-term urban growers challenges the utilitarian interpretation by arguing that urban agriculture in Ljubljana is in fact a means in itself—not an informal economy, but a narrative practice. While undertaken to ameliorate the effects of economic hardship, household urban agriculture first and foremost promotes individual wellbeing and restores a stable sense of self. I outline a series of self-making benefits of working with cultivated, edible nature that helped gardeners reconstruct their biographies after their previously established self-making processes collapsed in the economic downturn. (shrink)

This article provides a state of the art of the growing normative plea for enhanced representativeness, by which we understand a form of representation considering the sociodemographic particularities of society. We look at the Anglo-American plea for group representation and the French debate on parity democracy. Concerned with the structural marginalisation of large numbers of citizens from the political arena, these scholars criticise the abstract concept ofcitizenship and the interpretation of the process of representation as such. The plea for enhanced (...) representativeness faces more than one normative challenge. Dealing with these issues the scholars pleading for enhanced representativeness above all reveal that the issue for or against representation in terms of representativeness is a matter of choice on underlying normative assumptions. (shrink)