Fleck’s social theory of science refers to many ethnological examples in order to explain how collective thinking and acting constructs certain systems of belief and knowing. According to Fleck, scientific concepts and practices are comparable with magic terms and ceremonies. This essay aims to identify the ethnological sources that Fleck’s epistemology is using. By confronting them with other relativistic theories that were circulating in Lemberg during the interwar period, the originality of Fleck’s own position can be contextualized and explained as (...) well. (shrink)

This book makes compassionate caring and connectedness the central themes. Imbedded in the human psyche we find a deep yearning for connection. This book explores the many roadblocks that human beings put in the way of a healthy and respectful dialogue with each other, with nature, and with the universe. It also cites numerous examples from literature, philosophy, and society of a reawakening sense of connectedness.

Modal dispositionalists hold that dispositions provide the foundation of metaphysical necessity and possibility. According to the kind of modal dispositionalism that can be found in the present literature, a proposition p is possible just in case some things are disposed to be such that p. In the first part of this paper I show that combining this classic form of dispositionalism with the assumptions that the laws of nature are necessary and deterministic and that all dispositions are forward-looking in time (...) leads to the unattractive conclusion that every truth is necessary. I argue that the classic dispositionalist should be troubled by this result and in the second part of the paper I suggest a novel variant of dispositionalism that avoids it. This extended form of dispositionalism allows that some propositions are only indirectly underwritten by dispositions. (shrink)

At a time when the traditional principles of many fields have lost their power and validity, the task of philosophy may well be to look back at these traditional principles and at their inherent determinations and basic problems, while heeding every indi cation of a transition to something new, in order to be critically open for all attempts at "another beginning. " A philosophizing which thus sees its proper place "between" tradition and another beginning has grasped its own basic dilemma: (...) It remains in search of the true even though it has no valid concept of truth. A concept truth grounded solely in transcendental subjectivity convinces of it no longer, and the essence of truth as it "occurs" for experiential understanding has not yet been sufficiently determined. A phi losophizing which has understood itself in this way will not want to commit itself one-sidedly to one position or the other. Instead it will consider its task to lie in keeping thought in flux. The present collection of essays may be understood as an ex ample of such a conception of present-day philosophizing. Thus the first essay isolates the guiding thoughts of the traditional philosophy of reason and spirit as they fulfilled themselves in German idealism, in order to make the traditional concept of truth visible and to bring to light those basic determinations formed in certain contemporary philosophical tendencies which are either related to it or altogether new. (shrink)

La recherche sur Porigine du concept moderne de la critique au 18 c s. ne s'est orientée jusqu'à maintenant que sur l'histoire du mot « critique » . Elle doit cependant s'intéresser également aux développements historiques qui n'ont plus aujourd'hui d'effet immédiat ou qui ne sont pas reconnaissables à première vue. Le programme du doute raisonnable et de l'éclectisme véritable en font par exemple partie.

DieVorlesung über Moralphilosophie aus den 1770er Jahren ist eine wichtige Erläuterung und Ergänzung zur Grundlegung der Metaphysik der Sittenvon 1785. Die Neuedition der so genannten Menzer-Vorlesung präsentiert diese Vorlesung auf dem aktuellen Stand der Forschung. Zugrunde gelegt ist die Nachschrift Kaehler, die seit 1997 zum Kant-Archiv in Marburg gehört. Abgeglichen ist der Text mit mehreren Handschriften des Archivs der Berlin-Bandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Staatsbibliothek Berlin. Ein Anhang mit textkritischem Apparat und Erläuterungen zu Literatur und Personen sowie eine Einleitung (...) von Manfred Kühn erschließen die Vorlesung für alle, die sich für die Kant'sche Philosophie der Ethik interessieren. (shrink)

Conceptual research is interdisciplinary in two regards. On the one hand, various disciplines have developed various approaches to conceptual research. These range from conceptual analysis and conceptual history in philosophy, Begriffsgeschichte in historical and literary studies to term-related semantics in linguistics and conceptual research in psychoanalysis. On the other hand, concepts play a key role in any cooperation within interdisciplinary research projects. If they remain undiscussed and unmediated between the participating disciplines, they tend to impede productive cooperation. This contribution provides (...) an overview of different forms of conceptual research and introduces the approach of Experimental Conceptual Research as a technique of conceptual reflection, which unifies approaches of various disciplines by going back to an investigation of those criteria that become effective in the practice of concept formation and usage. As a criterial investigation, it starts at the level of conceptualizing phenomena within the course of research. In this way, premature fixations of conceptually filtered perceptions can be avoided, allowing the discovery of distinguishing features in phenomena to pave the way for forms of interdisciplinary cooperation that are deeply anchored in material content. (shrink)

"Rastafari practitioners have continually resisted social sciences definition of what outsiders called a millenarian movement. They maintained against these efforts of categorization that Rastafari as a lived and living philosophy combines ancient roots with ever emerging routes. These historical, dynamic and creative dimensions challenge any homogenizing attempts to freeze the 'movement' in time and space. African origins are as important as Diasporean experiences for Rastafari in the manifold struggles to downstroy slavery and oppression. But the strong universal appeal towards the (...) realization of equal rights and justice implodes analytical and practical limitations of a Black Atlantic culture. This volume brings together contributions from well-known Rastafari practitioners and social scientists as a counter to the unilateral politics of outside definition, identification, and misrepresentation. They discuss Rastafari as an experimental philosophy; its historical and contemporary global culture dimensions and its contribution to issues such as decolonization, reparation and repatriation. ". (shrink)

Originally published in 1935, this book charts the development of philosophy in Germany from German Humanism to Heidegger and his contemporaries. Brock also devotes an entire chapter to the lasting impact of Nietzsche and Kierkegaard on German philosophy. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in the history of German philosophy and its presentation before WWII.

First Published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.