Newly edited by Konrad Koerner (University of Ottawa), with an introduction by Clemens Knobloch (Universitat Siegen)The importance of Wegener's Untersuchungen uber die Grundfragen des Sprachlebens can only be compared to that of Karl Buhler's Sprachtheorie. Even now, however, Wegener's work remains virtually unknown to the English speaking world. Wegener's main work was published in 1885. It has its origin in two lectures given in 1883 and 1884 at school teacher meetings held in the Magdeburg area and it (...) still recalls those original occasions and maintains much of the oral style. Part of the volume treats the subject in a systematic and theoretical manner; other sections contain vivid examples and are characterized by a considerable didactic effort. The book is held together by leitmotif-questions, such as 'How do we understand language?' and 'How does language function as a means of everyday communication?'. We witness the experiences of the talented school teacher and the observations of the innovative dialect researcher combined, condensed, and conceptually ordered.In spite of the relatively unsystematic form of presentation, the book remains thoroughly consistent in thought and argument. In the Untersuchungen we have before us the outline of a communicative and functional view of language structure, of the analysis of speech, and of semantics. (shrink)

Nach W. Stegmüller besteht die "wahrscheinlichkeitstheoretische Antinomie der Quantenmechanik" darin, daß die Quantenmechanik einerseits den Wahrscheinlichkeitskalkül nach Kolmogoroff verwendet, andererseits aber zu Ergebnissen zu gelangen scheint, die dem Wahrscheinlichkeitskalkül widersprechen: so werden Orts- und Impulsobservable als Zufallsvariable interpretiert, aber es existiert nach der Quantenmechanik keine gemeinsame Verteilungsfunktion dieser Zufallsvariablen. Mit einer wahrscheinlichkeitstheoretischen Umformulierung einiger Ausführungen von G. Ludwig in [2] gelingt der Nachweis, daß Orts- und Impulsobservable Zufallsvariable auf verschiedenen Wahrscheinlichkeitsräumen sind. Daher steht die Aussage der Quantenmechanik, daß keine gemeinsame (...) Verteilungsfunktion für Orts- und Impulsobservable existiert, nicht im Widerspruch zum Wahrscheinlichkeitskalkül nach Kolmogoroff. (shrink)

Der wachsenden Bedeutung psychologischer Beratung und Planung steht ein nur begrenztes theoretisches Wissen gegenüber. Die sozialwissen- schaftliche Grundlagendiskussion der sechziger Jahre, die Kuhn-Lakatos-Kontroverse sowie der Versuch Sneeds, den Theoriebegriff modelltheoretisch neu zu konstruieren, haben das damit aufgegebene methodologische Problem unberücksichtigt gelassen. Die Arbeit entwickelt die Grundlagen für eine Theorie falsifizierbarer Handlungsbewertung, die diese methodologische Lücke für den psychologischen Praktiker schliessen soll.

Die Kernthese der Paracelsischen Naturphilosophie, die Ähnlichkeit von Mensch und Welt, festgelegt in der Analogie von Mikro- und Makrokosmos, enthüllt einen «Code», der als konstitutives Moment sämtliche Aussagen auf einer präkonzeptionellen Ebene organisiert, sämtliche Teilbereiche in ihrer funktionalen Bedeutung für das «Ganze» markiert und schließlich im Sinne Foucaults zu einer «diskursiven Formation» werden läßt. Die auf diese Weise vorgeführte Erfahrungsform von Welt und Natur steht zu dem neuzeitlich-technischen Verfügungswissen in einer historischen Diskontinuität.

Technology and Ethics. A European Quest for Responsible Engineering, edited by B. Heriard Dubreuil and his team (University Lille) is in many regards an innovative publication. It is the first fully European contribution to the field of engineering ethics and the result of an intensive cooperation between ethicists and engineers from all the member countries of the European Union. The basic structure of the book is both the distinction and interaction between three levels of analysis: personal responsibility of engineers, the (...) institutional level (business organisations) and the impact of technology on society and culture. On the personal level, the book deals with problems such as the role of professional codes and the fact that engineers must cope with flexibility, shorter lines of decision and erosion of the boundaries between private and professional life. On the meso level, the book deals with different aspects of decision making in the context of business organizations, such as quality management, technology assessment procedures, business ethics committees etc... On the macro level, the authors focus on the power of technology. Together with the influences from other social, economic and political actors, the decisions of engineers change the world in a way which is of moral significance. (shrink)

Ph. Van Parijs argues that there is no contradiction between his real-libertarian legitimation of the highest feasible basic income and his pragmatic plea for a low basic income as an appropriate policy to reduce involuntary unemployment. However, he concedes that some logically possible consequences of the introduction of a basic income — such as a massive withdrawal of women from the labour market — might prompt him to reconsider the view that social justice reduces to „real freedom for all”.

It is perhaps significant that one of the more informative texts on ancient shipbuilding predates the period in which Greco-Roman shipping flourished. It is Homer's description of how Odysseus built a ship () on the island of the nymph Calypso, with which he intended to return to his native island of Ithaca. The text is of exceptional interest because it gives as early as the eighth century B.C. a stepby- step description of the tenon-and-dowel ‘shell-first’ method typical of Greco- Roman (...) ship-building, which has been so amply confirmed in the last few decades by underwater archaeology in the Mediterranean. (shrink)