Name der Zeitschrift: Frühmittelalterliche Studien Jahrgang: 51 Heft: 1 Seiten: 325-388.

Even when they address the same issues, different situations do not elicit the same kind of language use. Just as theological summas are not like sermons, and commentaries on the Books of Sentences are not like summas for confessors, medieval texts about marriage vary greatly according to the situations for which they were written. The function of each text and the purpose of its speaker or writer affect the perspective taken on marriage as a social, religious, and sexual phenomenon. This (...) essay will focus on marriage sermons: because of their use in pastoral settings and their lay audience, these sermons address the theme of marriage in a pragmatic way, which at times contrasts with the perspective found in dogmatic, academic texts. (shrink)

Die Phänomenologie hat mittlerweile eine über einhundertjährige Geschichte. Dieses Buch führt auf drei Wegen in die Vielfalt ihrer unterschiedlichen Ansätze ein. Dabei geht es dem Autor nicht nur um eine Darstellung der Geschichte der Phänomenologie. Er führt ausserdem vor, wie ihr Anspruch, die Sachen selbst zu untersuchen, erfüllt wird und auch eine philosophische Strömung wie der Deutsche Idealismus phänomenologisch fruchtbar gemacht werden kann. Zudem trägt Schnell zur aktuellen Debatte um den Neuen Realismus bei. Diese Einführung referiert nicht, was Phänomenologie (...) ist: Sie ist selbst Phänomenologie. (shrink)

What exactly are the reasons we do things, and how are they related to the resulting actions? Bittner explores this question and proposes an answer: a reason is a response to that state of affairs. Elegantly written, this work is a substantial contribution to the fields of rationality, ethics, and action theory.

The paper deals with some of the developments in analysis against the background of Hilbert's contributions to the Calculus of Variations. As a starting point the transformation is chosen that took place at the end of the 19th century in the Calculus of Variations, and emphasis is placed on the influence of Dirichlet's principle. The proof of the principle (the resuscitation ) led Hilbert to questions arising in the 19th and 20th problems of his famous Paris address in 1900: theexistence (...) in a generalized sense, and theregularity of solutions of elliptic partial differential equations. By this new concept Hilbert pointed out two very important issues the history of which is closely tied up with the rise of modern analysis. Further on, Hilbert'stheorem of independence of the Calculus of Variations, an important contribution to its formal apparatus as well as to its field theory, is briefly discussed. But even as Hilbert published his first essential results, he was turning his attention to another area of mathematics that differs in an important respect from the Calculus of Variations:integral equations. Hilbert did so because he recognized that in this branch by its flexibility he was coming closer to his goal of an unifying methodological approach to analysis. (shrink)

How does consciousness vary across the animal kingdom? Are some animals ‘more conscious’ than others? This article presents a multidimensional framework for understanding interspecies variation in states of consciousness. The framework distinguishes five key dimensions of variation: perceptual richness, evaluative richness, integration at a time, integration across time, and self-consciousness. For each dimension, existing experiments that bear on it are reviewed and future experiments are suggested. By assessing a given species against each dimension, we can construct a consciousness profile for (...) that species. On this framework, there is no single scale along which species can be ranked as more or less conscious. Rather, each species has its own distinctive consciousness profile. (shrink)

Rüdiger Bittner argues that the aim of thinking about what to do, of practical reason, is to find, not what we ought to do, but what it is good to do under the circumstances. Neither under prudence nor under morality are there things we ought to do. There is no warrant for the idea of our being required, by natural law or by our rationality, to do either what helps us attain our ends or what is right for moral reasons. (...) While common moral understanding is committed to there being things we ought to do and to our being guilty and deserving blame if we fail to do them, we can lay aside these notions without loss, indeed with benefit. The volume also explains what it is for something to be good to do under the circumstances and argues for understanding practical reason in these terms. What is good to do we find by experience: what we go through teaches us what helps and what hinders, and helps us figure out what is prudentially useful and what is morally right to do-although ultimately this difference itself gives way, and morality turns out to be a part of prudence. (shrink)

According to the scenario of cosmological artificial selection and artificial cosmogenesis, our universe was created and possibly even fine-tuned by cosmic engineers in another universe. This approach shall be compared to other explanations, and some far-reaching problems of it shall be discussed.

The purpose of this essay is to explain human religiosity as a phenomenon resulting from biological evolution and a neurological set of equipment which can help human beings reduce existential anxiety by offering them metaphysical security and meaning. Thereby, a form of philosophy in the tradition of European Enlightenment would be able to clarify religious issues and prevent both religious and ideological intolerance.

Matthias Schramm, a well-known historian of science and professor at the University of Tübingen from 1966 to 1996, died in Dusslingen near Tübingen on 24 January 2005, shortly before his 77th birthday. He was born on 6 February 1928 in Paris as a child of painters. Due to wartime difficulties, most of his education was acquired at home. In spite of this, he passed the examination of a high-school prior to his matriculation. Although Schramm's school had a pure classical orientation, (...) he read on his own initiative Euclid in Greek. (shrink)

The influence of the Platonic theory of forms is to be found in nearly all periods in the history of Western philosophy. Much less well known is the fact that in all ages Arabic philosophers also discussed Platonic forms in their written works, although they had no access to Plato s Dialogues. This study analyses how this conception was given doctrinal content without recourse to Plato s works, and presents the relevant Arabic works in German translation for the first time. (...) They offer a first insight into a branch of the reception of Platonism that has not yet been researched, but which is often clearly influenced by Islam.". (shrink)

Sentience is the capacity to have feelings, such as feelings of pain, pleasure, hunger, thirst, warmth, joy, comfort and excitement. It is not simply the capacity to feel pain, but feelings of pain, distress or harm, broadly understood, have a special significance for animal welfare law. Drawing on over 300 scientific studies, we evaluate the evidence of sentience in two groups of invertebrate animals: the cephalopod molluscs or, for short, cephalopods (including octopods, squid and cuttlefish) and the decapod crustaceans or, (...) for short, decapods (including crabs, lobsters and crayfish). We also evaluate the potential welfare implications of current commercial practices involving these animals. (shrink)

Corporate sustainability reports are supposed to provide a complete and balanced picture of corporate sustainability performance. They are, however, usually voluntary and thus prone to interpretation and even greenwashing tendencies. To overcome this problem, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) provides standardized reporting guidelines challenging companies to report positive and negative aspects of an organization’s sustainability performance. However, the reporting of “negative aspects” in particular can endanger corporate legitimacy if perceived by the stakeholders as not being in line with societal norms (...) and values. Starting from the theoretical lenses of economics-based disclosure theories and socio-political theories of disclosure, the focus of this study therefore was to analyze the communicative legitimation strategies companies use to report “negative aspects,” i.e., negative ecological and social impact caused by corporate activity. Using qualitative content analysis of GRI-oriented sustainability reports from companies listed on the US Dow Jones Industrial Average Index and on the German DAX Index, we identified six legitimation strategies. We discuss these strategies regarding to symbolic and substantial management of legitimacy. We show that symbolic legitimation strategies aiming at modifying the perception of legitimizing stakeholders dominate in the reports at hand. Such persuasion, however, does not meet the requirement of impartiality as postulated by the GRI guidelines. Building upon this conclusion we propose a concise characterization of “negative aspects” and develop a GRI-compliant schema of reporting about them. In doing so, we offer a way to improve the overall “balance” of sustainability reporting contributing to a true and fair view in sustainability disclosure. (shrink)

Seit Menschengedenken und lange vor den evidenzbasierten, methodisch reflektierten Naturwissenschaften haben Menschen über das hinausgedacht, was ihnen unmittelbar durch die Sinneserfahrungen erscheint – Spekulationen über den unsichtbaren Mikro- und Makrokosmos eingeschlossen. Dieser Prozess ist noch nicht am Ende. Galt das Universum bislang per definitionem als einzigartig, mehren sich inzwischen die Indizien aus Kosmologie und Fundamentalphysik, dass es viele andere Universen geben könnte. Sie sind von unserem durch Raum, Zeit oder Extradimensionen getrennt – und haben vielleicht doch bizarre Auswirkungen. Mit der (...) Annahme eines solchen Multiversums sollen außerdem viele grundlegende Fragen beantwortet werden: zum Beispiel nach der Ursache des Urknalls, der Richtung der Zeit und den scheinbar extrem genauen „Feinabstimmungen“ der Naturkonstanten, ohne die Leben, wie wir es kennen, unmöglich wäre. Welchen explanatorischen und wissenschaftstheoretischen Status können solche Hypothesen oder Spekulationen legitimerweise beanspruchen? Haben sie überhaupt einen Erklärungswert? Oder sind sie, wenn beziehungsweise weil nicht widerlegbar, nicht eher ein Gegenstand der Metaphysik (was nichts Verwerfliches wäre) oder aber ein Beispiel für Pseudowissenschaft (was intellektuell unredlich wäre)? (shrink)

Der Band geht zurück auf die Tagung „Der aufrechte Gang im windschiefen Kapitalismus“, die im Januar 2016 in Weimar stattgefunden hat. Ihr Ziel war es, unterschiedliche Traditionen zusammenzuführen, Modelle kritischen Denkens zu vergegenwärtigen und neue Perspektiven der Gesellschaftstheorie zu eröffnen. Die Beiträge widmen sich der Standortbestimmung kritischer Theorien. Sie reflektieren auf ihre Ursprünge, loten ihr zeitdiagnostisches Potential aus und dokumentieren ihren interdisziplinären Charakter. Der „aufrechte Gang“ im Denken bedeutet, sich von der Übermacht des Bestehenden nicht einschüchtern zu lassen, konformistischer Akzeptanz (...) wie irrationaler Sinngebung zu widerstehen und die Möglichkeit des Neuen, die Utopie, wach zu halten. (shrink)

This essay tries to account for a certain “speculative turn” in contemporary philosophy (Q. Meillassoux, G. Harman, M. Gabriel, etc.) from a phenomenological point of view . A first objective of it will consist in exposing the link between, on the one hand, the methodological sense of Husserl’s concrete phenomenological analyses (concerning, for example, time and intersubjective structure of transcendental subjectivity,) and on the other hand, the consequences that follow from the grounding of phenomenology as first philosophy. This will allow (...) a largely underestimated research angle to be opened up, one that I call a “constructive phenomenology,” that constitutes an essential and original figure of transcendental philosophy in general. A second objective will then consist in the attempt to sketch the foundation of knowledge as knowledge , the core of a “phenomenological metaphysics.” Whereas the first part will remain within a Husserlian framework, the second will develop some elements of a “speculative transcendentalism” in a phenomenological perspective. (shrink)

The first United Nations Millennium Development Goal calls for a distinct reduction of worldwide poverty. It is now widely accepted that the private sector is a crucial partner in achieving this ambitious target. Building on this insight, the ‹Bottom of the Pyramid’ concept provides a framework that highlights the untapped opportunities with the ‹poorest of the poor’, while at the same time acknowledging the abilities and resources of private enterprises for poverty alleviation. This article connects the idea of business with (...) the poor to sustainable development and especially to the notions of inter- and intragenerational justice. These principles of justice can be linked with the ‹Bottom of the Pyramid’ approach directly through the Rawlsian principles to foster holistic thinking. On this basis, the article offers a normative-ethical reasoning of corporations’ possible responsibilities for the poorest of the poor. Today’s state of worldwide inequalities is likely to generate future tensions between the privileged western world and the uncounted mass of poor (let alone the ethical dubiousness of this status). However, it is at the same time problematic if not even impossible to improve the situation of the poor by simply copying the resource intensive western way of living to the ‹Bottom of the Pyramid’ due to the limited carrying capacity of the earth. After highlighting possible moral dilemmas which may occur through such a potential trade off, this article concludes with an outlook on how the concepts ‹Bottom of the Pyramid’ and sustainable development could be combined. (shrink)

With Ernst Christoph von Manteuffel and Luise Adelgunde Victorie Gottsched, two people come into contact with each other who are unique in the early Enlightenment. After relinquishing his high political functions, Imperial Count Manteuffel devoted his energy to promoting enlightened ideas characteristic of the Leibniz-Wolff tradition. In the field of tension between the bourgeoisie, the nobility and the Enlightenment, his work has its own weight. The exceptional position of L. A. V. Gottsched among female authors in the second third of (...) the 18 th century has always been recognized. In her dealings with Manteuffel, her position as a satirist, as yet barely perceived, also unfolds, and her contributions touch the nerve of the politically explosive conflicts between Wolffianism and traditional theological positions. The Gottschedin-Manteuffel correspondence shows two sovereign actors connected in mutual respect. (shrink)

Wahn und Wirklichkeit lassen sich bekanntlich nicht immer leicht unterscheiden – und ähneln sich bisweilen sogar erschreckend. Auch der Glaube an Verschwörungen ist weit verbreitet und geriert sich gerne als besonders aufgeklärt und skeptisch. Mit dem radikalen Zweifel in der Philosophie hat er aber wenig gemeinsam. Die Interessen sind sogar ganz gegensätzlich. Eine kritische Reflexion von Wert und Wirkung dieser Haltungen ist daher aufschlussreich. Weil Begründungen immer in einen infiniten Regress, Zirkel oder Abbruch münden, ist absolut sicheres Wissen nicht möglich. (...) Neuere Entwicklungen in der Erkenntnistheorie zeigen jedoch, dass sich die Rechtfertigungen unserer Überzeugungen vielleicht doch tiefer fundieren lassen, und dass die Erkenntnisgrenzen erweitert und im Hinblick auf skeptische Argumente genauer bestimmt werden können. Die undogmatische epistemische Bescheidenheit, die daraus resultieren sollte, stellt zugleich eine wichtige Einsicht dar, die die beste Voraussetzung ist für weitere Forschungen und somit für einen Fortschritt in der wissenschaftlichen und philosophischen Erkundung unserer Welt und unserer Wissensgrenzen. (shrink)

Im Zentrum der Reihe Staatsverstandnisse steht die Frage: Was lasst sich den Ideen fruherer und heutiger Staatsdenker fur ein zeitgemaaes Verstandnis des Staates entnehmen? Carl Schmitt gehort zu den wichtigsten Staatsdenkern des 20. Jahrhunderts. Schon zu Lebzeiten wurden seine staats- und volkerrechtlichen, politikwissenschaftlichen und geschichtsphilosophischen Publikationen leidenschaftlich diskutiert. Er hat begeisterte Zustimmung und erbitterte Ablehnung erfahren. Sein Tod hat geradezu zu einer Renaissance des Schmittschen Denkens im In- und Ausland gefuhrt. Die Frage nach den Ursachen beantwortet Jan-Werner Muller in diesem (...) Buch so: "Carl Schmitt war ein Denker des Ubergangs, und er war ein Theoretiker der Grenzziehung. Er kehrt wieder in Zeiten sich verwischender Grenzen und bruchig gewordener Begriffe". In dem vorliegenden Band analysieren argentinische, brasilianische, deutsche, franzosische, japanische, koreanische und spanische WissenschaftlerInnen die aktuelle Bedeutung Carl Schmitts in der internationalen Debatte. Der Band gliedert sich in funf Teile: Parlamentarische Demokratie und Liberalismus, Die Schmitt-Rezeption in Sudeuropa, Die Schmitt-Rezeption in Lateinamerika, Die Schmitt-Rezeption in USA, Die Schmitt-Rezeption in Ostasien. (shrink)

One of the century's greatest philosophers, without whom there would be no Sartre, no Foucault, no Frankfurt School, Martin Heidegger was also a man of great failures and flaws, a Faustus who made a pact with the devil of his time, Adolf Hitler. The story of Heidegger's life and philosophy, a quintessentially German story in which good and evil, brilliance and blindness are inextricably entwined and the passions and disasters of a whole century come into play, is told in this (...) brilliant biography. Heidegger grew up in Catholic Germany where, for a chance at pursuing a life of learning, he pledged himself to the priesthood. Soon he turned apostate and sought a university position, which set him on the path to becoming the star of German philosophy in the 1920s. Rüdiger Safranski chronicles Heidegger's rise along with the thought he honed on the way, with its debt to Heraclitus, Plato, and Kant, and its tragic susceptibility to the conservatism that emerged out of the nightmare of Germany's loss in World War I. A chronicle of ideas and of personal commitments and betrayals, Safranski's biography combines clear accounts of the philosophy that won Heidegger eternal renown with the fascinating details of the loves and lapses that tripped up this powerful intellectual. The best intellectual biography of Heidegger ever written and a best-seller in Germany, Martin Heidegger: Between Good and Evil does not shy away from full coverage of Heidegger's shameful transformation into a propagandist for the National Socialist regime; nor does it allow this aspect of his career to obscure his accomplishments. Written by a master of Heidegger's philosophy, the book is one of the best introductions to the thought and to the life and times of the greatest German philosopher of the century. (shrink)