Zusammenfassung 1704-18 erschienen die sog. Rengerischen Staaten, eine Serie von ca. 80 Bänden, die meist jeweils eine politische Einheit beschreiben. Der Generaltitel bezieht sich auf die ausschlaggebende Rolle des Verlags Renger aus Halle a.d. Saale, handelte es sich doch um ein rein kommerzielles Produkt. Die Titel wurden über den Buchmarkt vertrieben, und der Verlag steuerte Produktion, Distribution und Rezeption rigoros. Damit ist die Reihe durchaus typisch für die kompilatorische Wissensliteratur ihrer Zeit. Der Seriencharakter unterstützte die Vermarktung, da er die Möglichkeit (...) zur Revision, zur schrittweisen Erweiterung des Angebots und zum blockweisen Verkauf bot. Schließlich mündete er in eine Ausdehnung der zunächst auf Europa beschränkten Staatenkunden auf asiatische und afrikanische Länder sowie Amerika. Konzeptionell markiert die Serie den Übergang von der Fürstenherrschaft zum Institutionenstaat und die daran geknüpfte Ausdifferenzierung von Politik und Öffentlichkeit. (shrink)

Summary The non-statement view of scientific theories contains a new conception of theoreticity: A function is „T-theoretical if T must be presupposed for its calculation. On the basis of this conception some philosophers came to the conclusion that scientific theories are not empirically testable because they contain T-theoretical functions. It is claimed that the attempt to test them ends in a circularity: The test of T presupposes T itself.

Betr. u.a. S. 71-76: "Jacob Burckhardt und die 'an sich böse' Macht.".

The acoel worm Symsagittifera roscoffensis, an early offshoot of the Bilateria and the only well‐studied marine acoel that lives in a photosymbiotic relationship, exhibits a centralized nervous system, brain regeneration, and a wide repertoire of complex behaviors such as circatidal rhythmicity, photo/geotaxis, and social interactions. While this animal can be collected by the thousands and is studied historically, significant progress is made over the last decade to develop it as an emerging marine model. The authors here present the feasibility of (...) culturing it in the laboratory and describe the progress made on different areas, including genomic and tissue architectures, highlighting the associated challenges. In light of these developments, and on the ability to access abundant synchronized embryos, the authors put forward S. roscoffensis as a marine system to revisit questions in the areas of photosymbiosis, regeneration, chronobiology, and the study of complex behaviors from a molecular and evolutionary perspective. (shrink)

Retrieval of relevant unstructured information from the ever-increasing textual communications of individuals and businesses has become a major barrier to effective litigation/defense, mergers/acquisitions, and regulatory compliance. Such e-discovery requires simultaneously high precision with high recall (high-P/R) and is therefore a prototype for many legal reasoning tasks. The requisite exhaustive information retrieval (IR) system must employ very different techniques than those applicable in the hyper-precise, consumer search task where insignificant recall is the accepted norm. We apply Russell, et al.’s cognitive task (...) analysis of sensemaking by intelligence analysts to develop a semi-autonomous system that achieves high IR accuracy of F1 ≥ 0.8 compared to F1 < 0.4 typical of computer-assisted human-assessment (CAHA) or alternative approaches such as Roitblat, et al.’s. By understanding the ‘Learning Loop Complexes’ of lawyers engaged in successful small-scale document review, we have used socio-technical design principles to create roles, processes, and technologies for scalable human-assisted computer-assessment (HACA). Results from the NIST-TREC Legal Track’s interactive task from both 2008 and 2009 validate the efficacy of this sensemaking approach to the high-P/R IR task. (shrink)

Popper’s theory of the three worlds has been widely criticized. In this paper, the main points of criticism are discussed. It is shown that the most serious difficulties are caused by Popper’s assumption that world 3 contains ideal, Platonic objects, which nevertheless have a history and are, in a certain sense, able to create other world 3 objects. Then it is asked whether the idea of a third world is necessary to explain the growth of knowledge and the development of (...) culture. The question is answered in the negative. Finally, it is discussed whether the talk of world 3 objects can be interpreted in a way that does not raise the problems of Popper’s conception. (shrink)

Several studies suggest that pain is a trigger for challenging behaviour in older adults with cognitive impairment. However, such measured relationships might be confounded due to item overlap as instruments share similar or identical items. The purpose of this study was to examine whether the frequently observed association between pain and challenging behaviour might be traced back to item overlap. This multicentre cross‐sectional study was conducted in 13 nursing homes and examined pain (measure: Pain Assessment in Advanced Dementia Scale) and (...) challenging behaviour (measure: Cohen‐Mansfield Agitation Inventory) in 150 residents with severe cognitive impairment. The extent of item overlap was determined by juxtaposition of both measures’ original items. As expected, comparison between these instruments revealed an extensive item overlap. The statistical relationship between the two phenomena can be traced back mainly to the contribution of the overlapping items, which renders the frequently stated relationship between pain and challenging behaviour trivial. The status quo of measuring such associations must be contested: constructs’ discrimination and instruments’ discrimination have to be discussed critically as item overlap may lead to biased conclusions and assumptions in research as well as to inadequate care measures in nursing practice. (shrink)

Struve has tried to refute my critic of the structuralist thesis that testing theories leads in an epistemological circle. But he misunderstands the thesis he wants to defend.

https://revistes.uab.cat/enrahonar/article/view/v35-gerhardt.

The theses presented here all depart from the assumption that ethics as a philosophical discipline is not contingent upon a theological grounding or justification. What is more: philosophical ethics may not have recourse to religious reasons. But this does not exclude the possibility that philosophically justified ethics may be made richer through reference to the beliefs and faith of those who follow it. Such an ethics elucidated by recourse to faith can strengthen and clarify both personal motives of ethical behavior (...) and its social attractivity. This view is developed in ten theses for a Protestant ethics. (shrink)

The basis for the secrecy is equally apparent, being furnished by Kant a bit later: it could, he suggests, damage the repute of governments to take counsel in foreign affairs from their “subjects.” As a consequence, what can only be publicly executed ought to be agreed on previously in strict secrecy. The state may thus only “tacitly... summon its citizens” to “publicly discuss the general maxims of warfare and peacemaking”. Quite superfluously, a few lines later Kant expressly concedes that “no (...) particular agreement... in this particular point” is needed, corresponding as it does to the imperative of general “human reason.” The public status here openly endowed with secrecy thus has as its object nothing less than something morally and legally self-evident. (shrink)