Hermeneutik gilt heutzutage meistens als Bestandteil der Philosophie. Das ist aber eine verkürzte Sicht ihrer Gegenwart und erst recht ihrer Geschichte. Denn von Haus aus bezeichnet Hermeneutik alle Verfahren zur Auslegung von Texten. Sie begann in der Antike mit der Neu-Interpretation klassischer Dichter. Anschließend lernten die Christen die jüdische Bibel im Sinne ihres Evangeliums auszulegen. Sodann brauchte auch schriftliches Recht Interpretation, ebenso die philologisch-historische Quellenkritik der Geschichtswissenschaft. Jetzt erst führte die Philosophie die verschiedenen Varianten zu einer allgemeinen Hermeneutik zusammen. Daneben (...) hatten aber vier andere Wissenschaften eigene Auslegungstheorien und Methodenlehren entwickelt. Diese fünf Entwicklungspfade des gesamten Feldes werden hier zum ersten Mal von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart im Überblick dargestellt. (shrink)

English summary: This collection of completely revised, and in part, considerably expanded, contributions further illustrate key aspects of the biography of Carl Schmitt as presented in Carl Schmitt. Aufstieg und Fall (Carl Schmitt. Rise and Fall), published by Beck-Verlag in Munich in 2009. In the Diskurspartisan, (partisan of discourse) Schmitt is depicted as both an intellectually brilliant and radical, charismatic and artful Kriegstechniker des Begriffs (war technician of ideas). German description: Die vorliegenden, grundlegend uberarbeiteten und teils stark erweiterten Studien fuhren (...) zentrale Aspekte der Biographie Carl Schmitt. Aufstieg und Fall (Beck-Verlag, Munchen 2009) exemplarisch weiter. Sie erortern Schmitts Ekstasetechnik ausseralltaglicher Dramatisierung seines Lebens als Ausnahmezustand, die Wirkung des Lehrers auf Otto Kirchheimer, das ambivalente Verhaltnis zum Heidelberger Rechtspositivismus, den nationalsozialistischen Aufstieg im Kolner Sommersemester 1933, den fruhen Auftritt des NS-Kronjuristen gegenuber dem pratendierten Philosophenfuhrer Martin Heidegger, die ruckblickende Spiegelung Hitlers in der dramatischen Figur von Friedrich Schillers Demetrius, die spatere Distanzierung von Walter Benjamin im Handexemplar von Benjamins Trauerspiel-Buch, das spannungsvolle Verhaltnis zu Ernst Junger und die esoterischen Vernetzungen und elitaren Kommunikationsformen des Diskurspartisanen der Bundesrepublik. Der Diskurspartisan erscheint als intellektuell brillanter und radikaler, charismatischer und schongeistiger Kriegstechniker des Begriffs. (shrink)

Hans Wagner (1917-2000) hat Mitte des vorigen Jahrhunderts eine systematische Erneuerung der Transzendentalphilosophie in Angriff genommen: eine an Kants subjektheoretischem Geltungsbegriff orientierte und Problementwicklungen des deutschen Idealismus, des Neukantianismus und der Phanomenologie integrierende Transzendentalphilosophie. Diese Gedenkschrift zu seinem hundertsten Geburtstag enthalt Beitrage von Reinhold Aschenberg, Reinhold Breil, Martin Bunte, Werner Flach, Klaus Ganglbauer, Bernward Grunewald, Reinhard Hiltscher, Christian Krijnen, Peter Michael Lippitz, Steinar Mathisen, Gerhard Seel, Manfred Wetzel und Kurt Walter Zeidler, welche die Philosophie Wagners in ihrem historischen (...) und systematischen Gehalt erkunden. (shrink)

Schlusslogische Letztbegründung is a collection of essays in honor of Kurt Walter Zeidler. Mr. Zeidler is a distinguished Kant- and Neo-Kantian-scholar who has reconstructed Kant's concept of transcendental logic in connection with the logic of the concept of Hegel and the logic of symbolization of Peirce. (cf. Zeidler: Grundriss der transzendentalen Logik, 3rd ed., Wien 2017) He has most notably inquired intensively into the relation of transcendental logic to philosophy of science (cf. Zeidler: Prolegomena zur Wissenschaftstheorie, Wien 2000) and (...) to phenomenology (cf. Zeidler: Vermittlungen. Zum antiken und neueren Idealismus, Wien 2016). He has also published several studies on Neo-Kantianism (cf. Zeidler: Provokationen. Zu Problemen des Neukantianismus, Wien 2018). This is refelected in the collection of essays by distinguished scholars who discuss and critically examine Zeidler's work. It includes contributions by Steinar Mathisen (Oslo), Wolfdietrich Schmied-Kowarzik (Vienna), Werner Flach (Lichtenau), Thomas Knoppe (Straberg), Geert Edel (Wyk/Föhr), Martin Bunte (Münster), Reinhard Hiltscher (Dresden), Walter Tydecks (Bensheim), Christian Krijnen (Amsterdam), Hartwig Wiedebach (Zürich), Max Gottschlich (Linz), Thomas Sören Hoffmann (Hagen), Rudolf Meer (Kaliningrad), Hans-Jürgen Müller (Frankfurt am Main), Robert König (Vienna), Ulrich Blau (Marburg), Karen Gloy (Luzern/Munich), Reinhold Breil (Aachen), Erhard Oeser (Vienna), Hans-Dieter Klein (Vienna), Hans Martin Dober (Tübingen), Kurt Walter Zeidler (Vienna) and Lois Marie Rendl (Vienna). (shrink)

his paper presents a unified treatment of the propositional and first-order many-valued logics through the method of tableaux. It is shown that several important results on the proof theory and model theory of those logics can be obtained in a general way. We obtain, in this direction, abstract versions of the completeness theorem, model existence theorem (using a generalization of the classical analytic consistency properties), compactness theorem and Lowenheim-Skolem theorem. The paper is completely self-contained and includes examples of application to (...) particular many-valued formal systems. (shrink)

Wollen (2022) is a critique of deontological libertarianism, the version of this philosophy predicated upon private property rights and the non-aggression principle. The launching pad for this article of his is the difficulty faced by conjoined twins, who diverge sharply in their view of their desirable future. The present rejoinder maintains that this author’s critique fails; further, that it really has little or nothing to do with conjoined twins per se, but, rather, aims at an entirely different challenge, that of (...) the tie or the dead heat. This latter is a critique that all political economic philosophies face, without exception, and libertarianism does no worse on this challenge than any other, the critique of Wollen to the contrary notwithstanding. (shrink)

The essay reproduced here is chapter 6 from Death’s Dream Kingdom: The American Psyche since 9-11 . In it, Walter A. Davis provides an analysis of Žižek's Welcome to the Desert of the Real that becomes a critique both of Žižek's general project and the Lacanian theory of the psyche on which it is grounded.

Small wonder: finitude and its horizons -- The underside of modernity: Adorno, Heidegger, and Dussel -- Empire or cosmopolis: civilization at the crossroads -- Confronting empire: a tribute to Arundhati Roy -- Speaking truth to power: in memory of Edward Said -- Critical intellectuals in a global age: toward a global public sphere -- Social identity and creative praxis: hommage á Merleau-Ponty -- Nature and artifact: Gadamer on human health -- Borders or horizons?: an older debate revisited -- Empire and (...) faith: sacred non-sovereignty -- Appendix: A. The dignity of difference: a salute to Jonathan Sacks -- B. Religion and rationality: Habermas and the early Frankfurt school -- Nomolatry and fidelity: a response to Charles Taylor. (shrink)

"... provocative and rewarding... " --Religious Studies Review "... a tour de force." --Theological Studies Theology and Difference reconceives the options confronting modern theology and investigates the disputed questions that underlie it. Pressing beyond the ready-made enlightenment offered by the subject-object framework, Walter Lowe uncovers a number of remarkable convergences between the contemporary philosopher Jacques Derrida and the early twentieth-century theologian Karl Barth.

Deep neural networks (DNNs) have found many useful applications in recent years. Of particular interest have been those instances where their successes imitate human cognition and many consider artificial intelligences to offer a lens for understanding human intelligence. Here, we criticize the underlying conflation between the predictive and explanatory power of DNNs by examining the goals of modeling.

Walter Kasper, a German cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, is president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, having served as its president from 2001 to 2010. Kasper explains that the interest of theology has been broken off by idealistic thinking, and advocates a new discussion between theology and idealism, of the fundamental importance of the theology of the twentieth century.

What is the role of consciousness in nature? The science of consciousness has largely neglected the question through its emphasis on human experience. In this précis of A Philosophy for the Science of Animal Consciousness, I outline how we can move from a top-down approach that begins with investigations in humans to an evolutionary bottom-up approach that targets the adaptive origins of even the most minimal forms of subjective experience. I will also offer an introduction to the central thesis of (...) the book, i.e. the pathological complexity thesis, according to which consciousness evolved in order to enable animals to adaptively respond to their life history challenges. (shrink)

In this radical reinterpretation of Aristotle's Metaphysics, Walter E. Wehrle demonstrates that developmental theories of Aristotle are based on a faulty assumption: that the fifth chapter of Categories is an early theory of metaphysics that Aristotle later abandoned.

We provide a survey of significant libertarian contributions to the discussion surrounding ethics and taxation. By significant contributions, we mean those which have exerted a strong influence both on libertarianism, popular and academic, and on political and ethical discourse more broadly. Our discussion centers on the work of three prominent libertarians: Robert Nozick, Ayn Rand, and Murray Rothbard. For each, we present his or her position concerning some ethical aspect of taxation and evaluate objections to it. Section 4.2 discusses Nozick’s (...) analogy between taxation of labor from earnings and forced labor and applies his argument against the fairness principle to fairness-based justifications of such taxation. Section 4.3 focuses on Rand’s view that compulsory taxation as such is unjust and considers her proposed scheme of voluntarily-funded minimal government. We argue that she failed to convincingly argue for either the feasibility or desirability of the latter. Section 4.4 addresses Rothbard’s similar position concerning the injustice of taxation per se and defends his view against possible justifications of that institution. (shrink)

The first results of my Phd-thesis regarding Michael Psellos’ practical philosophy, namely his approach on brotherly love and cosmopolitism. I will analyze passages from several texts and present first translations. Secondly I will put his arguments in context with the classical pagan, late antique and Christian ways of understanding virtue, cosmopolitism and brotherly love as well as work out his proper innovation. Michael Psellos is representative for the byzantine way of thought and its unique mixture that just begins to be (...) analyzed by modern scholars. (shrink)

This paper discusses logical accounts of the notions of consistency and negation, and in particular explores some potential means of defining consistency and negation when expressed in modal terms. Although this can be done with interesting consequences when starting from classical normal modal logics, some intriguing cases arise when starting from paraconsistent modalities and negations, as in the hierarchy of the so-called cathodic modal paraconsistent systems (cf. Bueno-Soler, Log Univers 4(1):137–160, 2010). The paper also takes some first steps in exploring (...) the philosophical significance of such logical tools, comparing the notions of consistency and negation modally defined with the primitive notions of consistency and negation in the family of Logics of Formal Inconsistency (LFIs), suggesting some experiments on their expressive power. (shrink)